> Flight of The Avali: Season One
>  by Patric12345
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: Contact (Re-Written)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Twilight rushed into the throne room, her hair was a mess and her wings looked disheveled. “Celestia, Luna! I’ve found something that you NEED to hear about!” She said in a frantic tone.

“Calm down Twilight, what’s wrong?” Celestia asked.

“There’s something… orbiting us…” Twilight panted as she took deep and heavy breaths.

Celestia quickly looked at Luna with concern in her eyes. “Luna did you see anything out of place last night?” She asked.

“No. I didn’t…” Luna said as she closed her eyes and thought.

“I… I managed to see that it’s about the size of Canterlot… and it’s just… Sitting there not moving at all.” Twilight said.

“We need to see what it is… But I can’t leave my duties and we need you here incase something come up.” Celestia said, looking at Twilight. “And Luna has the most experience with space…”

“I’ll go then. I want to see what this object is if it thinks it can enter my night sky.” Luna said as she stood up.

“Thank you.” Celestia said.

“I saw one last thing about it! There’s life i- o- I don’t know but I detected something was living on it!” Twilight said.

“Thank you Twilight. I’ll have to have a chat with whatever it is.” Luna said.

“If I get the chance I’ll come up to join you.” Celestia said as Luna started to walk out of the throne room.

“If it’s just one creature I’m sure if it attacks I’ll be fine.” Luna said, leaving the room.

“That’s what I’m worried about… If it’s an alien species then… Maybe it’s just here on a peaceful mission.” Celestia sighed.

“If it isn’t?” Twilight asked.

“We could have a species that we know nothing about invade and try to exterminate us…” Celestia said quietly.

Twilight stared silently at Celestia.

“Those are the best and worse case scenarios… For all we know it could also just be an animal that’s left on whatever it’s floating on.” Celestia said. “Then we don’t have to worry.”

“Let’s hope it’s either that peaceful alien or just an animal.” Twilight said.

“We can hope.” Celestia nodded.

------------------------------------

Luna flew up to the object and noted that it was a sphere contained in some sort of glass. Inside she could make out what appeared to be dirt, stone, trees and other types of materials one would expect to find on a planet. The trees appeared to be neatly kempt and in a fenced in area surrounded by stone. Just outside was a farm like area filled with what looked like fungi and weeds. She notice another much larger tree that had a rope ladder leading up into it’s higher branches to what appeared to be a treehouse-like structure.

After a few moments of nothing she saw something get thrown out a door and off the tree. She then saw a cute looking black furred creature with red feathers along it’s arms walk out of the tree and look down over the railing at the object it had thrown out.

Luna drifted towards it and tapped on the glass.

The creature looked up and waved at her.

Luna tilted her head curiously and waved back.

The creature tapped its head and looked at the ground appearing to be thinking.

Luna’s horn glowed and she appeared past the glass, directly in front of the creature. “Hello.” She said.

“AH!” The creature yelped in surprise, falling onto its ass and looking up at her, the surprise clear on its’ cute face.

“I’m sorry!” Luna said quickly, kneeling down beside the creature. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah… But how did you do that? I didn’t know you could use my teleporter…” The creature said, his surprise turning into clear wonder.

“Oh no, I just… teleported.” Luna said, her horn glowing once again and making the two of them appear on their feet.

“Woah… I’ve never seen that before…” The creature said, staring at her horn. “What are you?”

“I think the technical term is Pony. What about you?” Luna asked.

“I’m an Avali.” The creature said. “My name’s Einuli. What’s yours?”

“I am Princess Luna. It’s nice to meet you.” Luna smiled.

“It’s nice to meet you too! So do you just live in space?” Einuli asked, tilting his head a little.

Luna laughed. “No, not always.” She joked.

“Where do you live?” He asked.

“Equestria.” Luna said.

“Where’s that?” He asked.

“Well I don’t exactly know, not from here at least.” Luna said.

“Okay… How would you like to see my home?” He asked.

“That sounds nice, but I’d like to make sure my friends know I’m alright first.” Luna said.

“Can I come with?” Einuli asked.

“That won’t be necessary. They’ll be coming to us.” Luna said, her horn giving off a bright light, sending a bright light through the glass and out into space.

“Oh cool. What kind of engines do your ships use?” Einuli asked. “Mine uses an advanced hitromusa FTL Driver.”

“Hm… well I suppose brains.” Luna smirked, staring at Einuli.

Einuli stared blankly at her.

Celestia and Twilight both teleported right onto the treehouse. “What’s wrong?!?” Twilight asked quickly.

Einuli looked at the two of them before bolting into the door leading into the tree.

“What was that creature?” Celestia asked curiously.

“He’s a friend. I may have scared him incidentally… His name is Einuli.” Luna said, laughing as she glanced in Einuli’s direction.

“Wow his garden i-” Twilight stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Celestia asked, looking at what Twilight was staring at.

“I think the fungus is eating the other plants.” Twilight said.

“Huh?” Luna said.

“It just moved and destroyed the weeds.” Twilight said.

“Oh. Well I’m sure he can explain that to us.” Luna said, her magic flaring up, followed by Einuli appearing in front of them.

Einuli dropped the boot he was putting on and it hit the wood with a metallic clink. He stared at Luna, now frozen in fear.

“I was only teasing you.” Luna said, kneeling down beside him and smiling.

“Oh.” He mumbled.

“I said brains because well… we don’t have a ship. We just… can go into space.” Luna said.

“You told him we were going to use his brains?” Twilight asked.

“Shhhh.” Luna said, waving Twilight off dismissively.

Einuli stared silently at her.

“Are those bacteria colonies?” Celestia asked.

“Yes! That’s a delicacy back home!” Einuli nodded.

“So what do you eat besides that?” Luna asked.

“Um… Depends. I grow that fungi too. I eat the bark that grows from it… It’s all genetically modified for consumption too! And then there’s meat…” Einuli mumbled as he scratched his chin.

“You eat bark… that grow on genetically modified fungi…” Twilight said, disbelieving what he was saying.

“And I also grow apples, tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables, thought that’s on the other side… Away from the fungi.” Einuli said.

“Oh. You’re making me hungry.” Luna said.

“Well it’s just about meal time for me! Why don’t you join me?” He asked with a wide smile, revealing his razor sharp teeth.

Twilight rushed over and pulled his mouth open. “Wow you have really pointy teeth. Are they for defense?” She asked inquisitively.

“Um, Twilight?” Luna started.

“Nnnaghhash…” Einuli mumbled, avoiding closing his mouth on her hands.

Twilight’s magic surrounded his tongue and stretched it out, observing it with a growing curiosity.

“NNNAH!” Einuli groaned.

“What kind of foods do you eat to make your tongue black? Or is it naturally that way?” Twilight asked.

Einuli stared at her.

“Twilight, he can’t talk with your hands in his mouth.” Celestia chuckled.

Twilight yanked her hands away and released her magic grip on his tongue. “Sorry!” She said quickly.

“It’s natural… Well everyone of my kind has a different tongue color along with plumage and trim color.” Einuli said, stretching out his arms showing his black and red feathers. “Any other questions?”


“Where does your kind come from?” Celestia asked.

Einuli shrugged. “I dunno. We all just wander.” He said.

“You said you’re going to show us where you live. Did you just mean here? You don’t have a planet to call home?” Luna asked.

“I’ve had plenty of planets I’ve stayed on. I just like wandering.” Einuli said, though the three of them could detect the slightest bit of sadness in his voice. “And I’m sort of stuck here after some sort of violent fluctuation took out my engines. It happened a few weeks ago and I sort of drifted into orbit.”

Twilight looked away from him.

“But I don’t mind that much. If you’re not the only one’s who live down there then it might be fun to explore!” Einuli said. “Why don’t you three come in?” He asked motioning to the door to the treehouse they were standing on.

“That sounds wonderful.” Celestia smiled. The four of them went inside and the three princesses looked around and the sparsely decorated interior. They only saw a couch, a few chairs, and a few musical instruments. The instruments themselves looked expertly cared for and were hanging on racks above the ground.

“Quite… Spartan.” Luna commented.

“It works for me. And well… I don’t have great vision.” Einuli shrugged.

“Oh? That’s not a problem.” Celestia assured.

“Is that just…” Luna started.

“My entire species is more audio based… but we do have an excellent sense of smell too!” Enuli said.

“Interesting…” Twilight said.

“Are you near-sighted or far sighted?” Luna asked. Enuli tilted his head curiously.

“Can you see things that are far away clearly?” Twilight asked.

“Oh! No I can’t.” Enuli said shaking his head.

“I’m going to guess from the instruments you have, that you’re a musician of sorts?” Celestia asked.

“I love to play!” Enuli nodded.

“We’d all love to hear you play, possibly back at the castle? Some place maybe a little more cozy for us.” Celestia said.

“Ooh! Let me go gather a few things then!” Einuli said as he rushed through an opening in a nearby wall.

The other three followed him and peeked inside the room. Inside they saw various weapons, tools, armors, clothing, and other assorted items hanging, sitting, or laying around.

“Wow…” Twilight mumbled.

Einuli grabbed a little item from the wall and flicked a switch on it causing the object to glow. He then aimed it at a pad that was on the ground, the pad vanished and they saw a large amount of light move up the beam and into the item in his hand.

He then walked over to the wall and pulled down a large black cloak and draped it around his body before putting the item into the side pouch.

All three princesses stared wide eyed at him as he walked back towards them.

“Okay I’m ready to go!” Einuli said.

“What… was that?” Celestia asked.

“That shouldn’t be able to happen… you just destroyed that… matter can’t be… not like that…” Twilight mumbled.

“Don’t use that thing on any of us.” Luna stated.

“It doesn’t work on living creatures.” Einuli said. “And I just picked up my extra teleporter pad. It’ll make it easier for me to return to my ship!”

“And… what is that item that you picked it up with?” Celestia asked.

“A matter manipulator. It can pick up liquids, solids, and advanced machines with no problem! Not to mention dirt, sand, rocks, and the likes.” Einuli said with a smile.

“I need to see that sometime.” Twilight said.

“Sure! After I get my teleporter set up and connected. Just don’t break it. It’s the only one I have.” He nodded.

“Awesome!” Twilight smiled.

“Come on let’s head back down to the castle.” Celestia said, placing a hand on Einuli’s shoulder before her horn lit up.

Einuli blinked and he saw that the four of them were in a new place. “Wow…” Einuli mumbled in wonder.

“Now we’ll have the guards prep a room for you. But in the mean tim-” Celestia was cut off as a yellow pegasus peeked in and squealed at the sight of the alien with them.

“HE’S ADORABLE!” Fluttershy shouted as she rushed over and hugged Einuli tightly.

“Hi.” Einuli smiled.

“And he can talk!” Fluttershy giggled. “Is he staying?”

“Weeelll… my engines broken… So yeah I am!” Einuli nodded.

“Yay! Come on I want you to meet the rest of my friends!” Fluttershy said pulling him away.

“Oooh! Wait Twilight, put the pad somewhere safe!” Einuli said as he threw the small item from his pocket to Twilight. Twilight caught the device and stared down at it as Fluttershy pulled Einuli away.

“Did that really…” Luna started.

“Yes.” Celestia said. “Yes it did.”

> Chapter 2: Friends?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Daash! Dash!” Fluttershy called as she pulled Einuli up a staircase and back towards the room her friend was staying in.

“Whaaat?” Dash groaned as she rolled over and looked at her friend. “I’m tryin to sleep…”

“Look what Twilight found! Isn’t he adorable??” Fluttershy questioned giddily as she pointed to the black and red plumed raptor standing beside her.

“What… is he?” Dash asked uncertainly as Einuli waved at her.

“I’m Einuli.” He waved.

“That’s an adorable name!” Fluttershy giggled as she hugged him.

“What is he…” Dash inquired slowly getting up from the bed. She poked the fluffy creature known as Einuli.

“I’m from a species called Avali.” He said. “Or… as one human put me before… a fluffy space raptor of deadly cuteness.”

“I like that second one.” Fluttershy smiled widely, squeezing him even closer and burying her face in his feathery head.

“Why… have I never heard of… either ‘Avali’ or ‘Humans’ before?” Rainbow Dash questioned, staring uncertainly at him.

“Oh, that’s an easy answer. You’re species hasn’t achieved a FTL drive yet.”

“A what?”

“A faster than light drive. It allows for travel at speeds excess of light speed. Meaning I could  technically, if the one on my ship wasn’t damaged, travel around this planet with it, several times in the span of an hour.” Einuli said. “But… that requires so much energy, that to expended it on doing something so trivial would be pointless and more likely than not, strand me here permanently.” He continued with, “The drive mainly works using jumps and wormholes that it creates… so in all reality why it’s called an FTL drive instead of a wormhole generator is beyond me. I mean… I’ve never seen the ship achieve light speed, that’s impossible in of itself as that’d require near infinite energy as the waste would be so high it’d never function beyond a micro-centimeter.” He concluded, seeming to correct himself in his explanation. Dash remained absolutely silent as she tried to process what he said.

“Wow, I think he could give Twilight a run for her money with that.” Fluttershy mumbled.

“Alright then… how did your ‘FTL Drive’ get damaged?” Dash inquired. “And… please explain it to me like I’m five.”

“I dunno.” Einuli shrugged. “It was working find before something inside it just burst. The engine’s old and is in need of an upgrade any way… so it didn’t bother me much. And hey! I luckily ended up near an inhabited planet! And better yet it’s not hostile! So I’m happy about that too!” He said giddily, losing that air of intelligence he had gathered.

“Strange… maybe you should take him to meet Pinkie.” Rainbow Dash offered.

“Oooh! He should meet everyone at once!” Fluttershy said, nearly beginning to bounce.

“Right uuh…” Dash mumbled. “I’ll go do th-”

Fluttershy let go of Einuli, rushing out of the room and out of sight.

“So… um… when did you get here?” Dash asked, trying not to be awkward.

“Just today.” Einuli responded.

“So it’d be a little early… well you did say you liked it here already.”

“Yep. I love it here. Mainly because… um it’s really lonely in space.” He sighed, seeming to go slightly lax as he stared at the ground. “‘Specially when… um… never mind…” He mumbled shaking his head and looking back up at her again.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s not important.” He shook his head, smiling slightly, though it seemed less genuine than before. Dash bit down on her lip, unsure of how to proceed.

Twilight barged into the room. “There you are!” She stammered out quickly.

“Is something wrong?” Einuli questioned.

“I… uh… messed up… with the manipulator… I sorta… um destroyed a door with it.”

“Destroy is an improper term… more of deconstructed.” Einuli pointed out. “I’ll show you how to work it… I shoulda showed you in the first place.”

“That’d be great!” Twilight nodded, handing off the device to the red and black feathered alien. He took it and followed her, with Rainbow Dash close behind, to the doorway to the room Twilight had been staying in.

“Hm… gimmie just a second…” Einuli said, fiddling with one of the buttons on the manipulator. After a moment a HUD popped up and the image of the door was the first thing she saw.

“What… how can it do that…”

Einuli shrugged. “An Apex scientist upgraded it for me after I did a few things for him.”

“Alrighty then, um. How do you place it back?” Twilight inquired, watching what he did carefully.

“Oh, that’s easy! There’s a little trigger here. It’s a two prong system. One aims the system, mainly by creating a beam so you know where it’s going.” Einuli explained, hitting the trigger once, a beam shot out and he aimed it at the empty doorway. “The second prong actually places the object, or liquid back.” He demonstrated this, and the door reappeared after a small light show, back in the doorway. He walked forward and opened the door up, showing it was working just as it should be. “There you go!” He smiled widely.

“What just happened.” Dash deadpanned.

“He fully reconstructed the door.” Twilight started. “After I had destroyed it.”

“Oooh, okay.” Dash nodded.

“That’s… not what I did…” Einuli started to speak.

“She… probably wouldn’t understand the technical description of what just happened.” Twilight turned back to Einuli, “So, I’ve wanted to ask, would it be possible for me to take a look around your ship?”

“Sure! I’d love to show you around!” Einuli nearly began to bounce giddily. “First, maybe I should meet the friends Fluttershy wanted me to meet.”

“Right… Pinkie. We really shouldn’t um… lead her on to someone new just to pull them away.” Twilight said slowly.

“Who’s Pinkie?” Einuli asked curiously.

“Give it a few more minutes and you’ll find out.” Dash laughed.

“It won’t happen that fast…” Twilight rolled her eyes, before pausing and looking around.

Einuli’s ears twitched, it was then that both girls noticed not just two twitches, but… four. “Someone’s moving, and fast.” He said, turning and glancing around, his feathers seeming to stand slightly on edge as he got down lower, bracing himself.

“How can he even hear her…” Dash mumbled to herself.

“Avali can hear a lot more than other species can… um, sort of an evolutionary trait. Our home planet is distant from the weak star we orbit… so since we got little light, we developed stronger auditory nerves that can detect weaker noises.”

“One Twilight is enough…” Dash let out an exasperated groan before speaking. “And now there’s one that can hear it when I mumble… greaaaaaaaaaaaat.”

“I could hear you. I just chose to ignore your grumbling.” Twilight stated.

“Oh no…” Einuli mumbled.

“What?” Both Twilight and Dash said at the same time.

“The footsteps just went silent.” Einuli mumbled.

“Wait… wait, wha-”

Einuli was tackled by a pink blur and he was slammed onto the ground. He gave out a loud partially pained grunt.

“OHMYGOSHIT’SSOCUTE!WHEREDIDYOUFINDIT,ANDCANIHAVEONETOO?!?” The pink mare on top of Einuli said in one sentence, or at least that’s what Dash and Twilight could make of what she said.

“Well he’s a-” Twilight started.

Einuli had already taken in a deep breath. “Myname’sEinuliandI’manAvali.Icamehereonmyshipand…” And so began his long answer to her even longer question.

> Chapter 3: Introductions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What…” Rainbow Dash choked out after Einuli had finished talking.

“Well… I guess having four separate ear canals can help with listening…” Twilight pondered, looking at both Einuli and Pinkie as the two stood up.

“Yep! The vast majority of Avali can hear multiple distinct sounds at once and still make them out as separate sounds. Even if all of you were talking at once I’d be able to understand you each individually.” Einuli nodded, “Oh, and those that can’t usually have had some sort of auditory implant or augmentation that prevents it, or that even makes them deaf in order to help with something else.” He added.

“Augmentations? You mean… your species changes their bodies and adds things to them… through…” Twilight started.

“Surgery, yep… I only really have one major one and it allows me to neurally jack into our species mainframe to see what’s changed and if anything is happening. I think the humans I’ve met have called it the internet before… just with less cats. Whatever that means.” Einuli shrugged. “It’s located underneath the fur on the back of my neck. Though at any given time if I wanted to I could have it removed, or I could get any number of augmentations… though I refrain from that because the process is… painful.” He sighed. “I got… made fun of a lot because of it. Most of m-... Um… a-a lot of Avali I’ve met have had so many augmentations… it’s sometimes hard to recognize them. There’s… a few other ones I have, just putting them on as a necessity really…”

“To each there own, I guess.” Twilight shrugged.

“Is there anyone else coming?” Einuli asked, glancing between the three mares in the room.

“Yep! Applejack and Rarity are coming too!” Pinkie stated.

“Oh! Before I  forget, Einuli do you happen to have and medical diagrams for yours, or any other species you’ve met on your ship?” Twilight inquired, getting slightly giddy.

“Of course! And sometime I’d like to get ahold of some scans of the different species on your planet. All sexs… if that applies here.” Einuli said.

“All sexs? We just have two… that’s the same with all the species here.” Twilight commented.

“Great! It’s really a hassle when nearly every individual is a different sex… Last time that happened.I’m just going to continue to deny that planet existed.”

“That’s not scienti-”

“I know. I just… nearly went insane documenting over 200 million sexes. I never… ever want to go through that again. It’s a fate worse than death.”

“Why is that?”

“I scanned the same individual several hundred times. It… was hard to tell because each species is denoted by slight color changes. And… I’m not good at seeing small differences… Though hearing is a different thing. I can even the most minute of changes in pitch, tone, or volume in any sound.” He said, smiling slightly, “And… well it’s really nice since I love music.”

“Oooooooh! Can we hear you play something?” Pinkie inquired, bouncing up and down.

“All of my instruments are on my ship.” Einuli explained. “Along with most of my belongings.”

“Why don’t you go get em?” Pinkie inquired, “It’ll help us get to know you!”

“It can wait.” Einuli casually shrugged, “I wanna meet the rest of your friends.”

Fluttershy followed by Rarity and Applejack walked into the room, “See! He’s right here!” Fluttershy pointed to Einuli.

“Ah believed yah sugar.” Applejack said, glancing to Rarity who was distracted with nearly poking Einuli as she looked over his black furred and red feathered body.

“Hmmm, those red tips… full luscious black fur. How do you keep your body so soft darling?” Rarity inquired as she ran her hand through the fur on his head. “Oooh, not to mention the underlayers are even softer…” She sighed, “Though, it could do with some brushing and your feathers could use some preening.” She finished up, “I know someone who might be able to help with that though.” She turned back towards Fluttershy, “Darling, you were right, he is absolutely adorable.” She smiled widely.

“Einuli, meet Rarity,” Twilight started motioning to Rarity who had just stepped back from him, “And Applejack.”

“Hi, I’m Einuli.” He waved at the two, a chipper smile on his face, one that seemed slightly more happy if for nothing other than the compliments he had just received.

“It’s very nice to meet you Einuli.” Rarity smiled down at him.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” Einuli replied.

“Yah it’s very nice tah meet yah.” Applejack said.

“Likewise.” He smiled, glancing between the six mares in the room.

“Those clothes seem quite old…” Rarity lifted up the cloak Einuli had on.

“I haven’t really had much reason to make new ones… they still cover me up nicely. And it helps keep me warm when I’m on desert planets during the night.” Einuli explained.

“I’m sure it does… but these colors are all wrong for you.” Rarity affirmed.

“Rarity… he-” Twilight was cut off.

“I’ll need you to come with me for a few minutes. I need to completely measure you so I can properly outfit you.” Rarity stated, tugging Einuli along with her. The two leaving the room just as quickly as Rarity had come in.

Twilight just let out a long exasperated sigh. “Great…”

“What were yah about to tell her?” AJ inquired.

“Just that he can’t see very well… so new clothing doesn’t really matter for him… though he’s going to be stranded here for a while… so I guess not wearing worn clothing might help him fit in a bit better.” Twilight scratched her chin.

“So… how exactly did he end up here?” AJ asked curiously.

“Right, you didn’t come with Celestia, Luna, and I.” Twilight nodded, “Alright, I’ll tell you all everything I know, that you don’t already know.”

---------------------------------------------

Several minutes later:

“And, now he’s here. Probably for a few more months at the very least.” Twilight finished.

“Wait… wait. His engines were damaged… didn’t you say a few days ago that…” Dash started.

“I do assume it was my spell that damaged his engines, since I DID cast it into the air… and it did absolutely nothing on Equus.” Twilight sighed. “So it could be my fault that he’s stranded here… though it’s not too bad, right?”

“So long as you go tell him and apologize for it.” Fluttershy began to scold.

“Fluttershy’s right, and hey, maybe ya’ll didn’t damage his engines.” AJ agreed.

“I was going to....” Twilight grumbled.

“You’re going to do it now!” Fluttershy stated, “Come on, let’s go get Einuli and Rarity!” The rest of the girls moved out of the room and began walking towards the one Rarity was staying in.

“You know what’d be great?” Dash started.

“What?” Pinkie asked.

“Einuli took Rarity up to his ship.” Dash continued. “I mean… usually aliens do come to abduct mares.”

“Psssh, what would he do?” Pinkie giggled. “He’s not even a he!”

Everyone just stopped.

“What do you mean?” Twilight questioned.

“I dunno.” Pinkie shrugged. “I just like saying weird things.”

“Right… I forgot for a second that we were talking to Pinkie Pie.” Twilight face palmed.

“Well… sometimes she does make sense.” Dash responded.

“Yeah! I’ve made sense plenty of times!” Pinkie stated.

“Mmm, yeah… but I have a feeling this isn’t one of those times.” Twilight shook her head, “I mean come on… he sounds male… and that’s about it.” She bit her lip. “Come on, let’s go find them…” She continued walking.

“He’s too friendly to even try hurting Rarity!” Fluttershy said.

“I’m not worried about that, he’s not going to hurt anyone. But… now I just want to get ahold of the documents he’s promised me.” Twilight said. The other four followed close behind her, knowing full well she wasn’t going to stop at all anymore.
> Chapter 4: Explanation Time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So… I was wrong about the fur?” Rarity inquired, taking the final few measurements of the raptor.

“Well… it’s common misconception. They’re feathers. But they do tend to look a lot like fur if you’re not paying close attention.” Einuli replied, almost casually as he stretched his back.

“Thank you for correcting me than. I’d rather avoid of-”

“You won’t offend me. You’d be really, really surprised how hard it is for me to take offence to anything.” He smiled, “I sorta take stuff like calling my feathers, fur, as part of being me.”

“It’s hard to say I’d feel the same in your place, but everyponies’ different.”

“That’s what makes everything so amazing! If everyone were the same the entire universe would be so… boring.” Einuli sighed.

“I can’t speak for very much of it… but, yes it would be, dull if everything was the exact same.” Rarity agreed, “Now, what are your favorite colors?”

“Um, well, red and black.” Einuli said.

Rarity laughed, “I should have been able to guess that.” She smiled, kneeling down in front of him, she started measuring around his crotch when she noticed something odd. “Is um, your penis internal? You’re missing a sheathe an-”

Twilight threw open the door to the room and saw the position Rarity was in.

“Oh! I was actually waiting for that question, um my species is more like birds in the sheer fact that we have a sperm duct in males in ovum ducts in females. There isn’t really any… mating as mammalian species are used to. Just trading of sperm and ovum to produce eggs.” Enuili started, now as everyone was flooding into the room they had just hit a lecture that put any Twilight had ever thought of to shame.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two hours later:

Spawning off of several questions Twilight had asked she was now intimately aware of most the psychology and culture of the Avali, as well as their breeding and augmentation culture. Everyone else had bailed after the breeding discussion because Twilight’s questions would have lead to them all dying of boredom.

“Any other questions?” Einuli asked, looking at Twilight curiously.

“Um, just what augmentations do you have?” She inquired.

“Oh, several in my brain, mainly allowing for… well translation of verbal language. Which helps me speak with other species, um a neural port to allow me to get in contact with other Avali and see what they’ve been up to. Along with other that allow me to more easily adapt to any other augments I may add.” Einuli tapped his chin, “Then there’s the muscular augmentations, they allow me to lift several tonnes between forty to around 300 tonnes depending on how high I bump up the energy usage of my augments, as well as hit the ground from huge distances without hurting myself. Skeletal reinforcements… general useful augmentations. Things that are necessary for space travel alone.” He shrugged. “I can activate and deactivate them at will.”

“Okay I was just about to ask why you weren’t crushing anyone yet.” Twilight laughed. “What was it like?”

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“Getting the augmentations.”

“Oooh, um, it really depends. The muscular ones weren’t too painful. The skeletal reinforcement however… um, I was crippled severally for several days. Too painful to move, breathing hurt, hell living hurt. But after it was done… well it’d be a major feat if you could break a single one of my bones.” He said, “The neural ones, um you HAVE to be unconscious for that. Thankfully my ship’s AI is fully capable of performing nearly any operation.” He affirmed.

“Hmm…” Twilight tapped her chin, “I can’t really think of any other questions…”

“Alright!” Einuli hopped up and walked out to the balcony, “I’m going to go eat, I should be back down in an hour or so!” He waved as he vanished in bright blue light.

Dash peeked back into the room, “Is it over?” She asked.

“Yeah, he’ll be back in an hour.” Twilight replied, looking to her friends. “You missed a lot of really important things, you know! Now, everyone get in here. Since you left after his reproduction explanation I wouldn’t be surprised if he felt like you only wanted to sleep with an alien.”

“He was using words I doubt any of us could understand besides you.” Dash rolled her eyes. “Please, sleeping with that cute little thing was the last thing on anyone’s mind.”

“She… surprisingly ain’t lying.” Applejack interjected.

“Well, I should really go report what I found out to Celestia.” Twilight sighed, walking past her friends and down to Canterlot’s throneroom.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile:

“So, you’re telling my you DIDN’T tell me that there’s an adorably cuddly alien now on our planet?” Cadance started, staring her aunt down.

“Honey, calm down…” Shining said.

“Well, I was trying to make sure he wasn’t here to simply kidnap mares and use them as breeding stock. Though I suspect after further investigation he has little inclination of what breeding even is.” Celestia sighed, “Or… anything really. It appears his only companion was some sort of AI that was open to letting us look around.”

“So, if he isn’t here to harm us why not alert the populace so they can see other creatures not from here aren’t bad or evil?” Cadance inquired.

“Well, we wanted you in particular to make sure he had no ill intentions.” Celestia said, “We figured you’d have the easiest time reading him. But first we wanted to make sure it was safe enough for you to be there alone with hi-”

“Cel-” Twilight stopped as she entered the throne room, seeing Cadance and Shining Armor there.

“Twilight!” Cadence rushed over and hugged Twilight tightly, both Princesses now falling into a fit of giggles and laughter as they hugged.

“Ah just the mare we wanted to see. You’ve been gone for so long? Did something interesting happen?” Celestia asked.

“Oooh boy. I have A LOT to explain. But I’ll make it quick.” Twilight pulled away from Cadence. “Just bear with me.” Cadance and Shining sat down and Twilight began a rather short version of the detailed lecture Einuli had given.
> Chapter 5: Discovery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Einuli was flipping through his a book in his kitchen as he decided what he wanted to eat. “Fungi… no, had that recipe yesterday… maybe start with a salad?” He mused, throwing another book onto the floor, a little device hanging from the ceiling shot it and the book vanished in a blue light. He walked out of the kitchen for a moment, standing out on the balcony of his massive treehouse… inside… a floating biosphere spaceship… in space. Though as he stepped out he noticed the light in his teleportation chamber was on. “Hmmm, someone’s here!” He said happily, activating a little button on his cloak. He found himself inside the teleportation chamber behind two ponies, one a pink coated alicorn, and a white coated unicorn.

“Alright, so where do we search for him?” The unicorn inquired, looking to the alicorn.

“Well I suppo-”

“Hi!” Einuli said happily, smiling widely at the two as they jumped back from him. “What are you doing up here?” He tilted his head curiously.

“Alright Cadance… remember, do. Not. Scream.” The unicorn coached, glancing a bit nervously at Cadance.

“Don’t worry, Shining. I won’t. No matter how cute he is.” She grinned widely, “We’ve come to see you Einuli!” She replied, kneeling down to be completely on level with him. “Is it alright if I hug you?” She asked curiously. Einuli nodded and Cadance squeezed him tightly, lifting him up into the air. “Ooooh, he’s so warm and cuddly! He’s like a furry living teddy bear!” She giggled and nuzzling into his soft fur. “This already makes coming here worth it!” She set the furry raptor down and stood back up. “Sorry if we interrupted you, I just really wanted to meet you!”

“It’s fine, I was just trying to decide what to eat for dinner, are you both hungry?” Einuli inquired, his smile remaining wide and happy.

“That’d be wonderful!” Cadance nodded.

“Mmm, can’t be too bad.” Shining shrugged. “Lead the way.”

Einuli lead the two of them out of the teleportation chamber. Both Cadance and Shining gawked at the size of the biosphere. Cadance looked up and saw incredibly clearly the stars shining brighter than they ever were on Equus. “This is amazing!” She said.

“Holy… you live in this? And… i-it’s been to other… planets?” Shining inquired.

“Oooh, if my chaos inhibitor wasn’t damaged I could safely show you! But since it’s damaged we miiight end up in another universe… or splattered all over the side of a moon. Or inside a planet. You know anywhere.” Einuli said. “I can however show you some diagrams and the likes of different things I’ve seen or found.” He offered.

“You don’t have to worry about that.” Cadance smiled, “Thank you for the offer though.”

“So, how did you deal with anything hostile out there? You seem too… soft for fighting.” Shining inquired curiously.

“Pssh, back in we go! I’ll just show you my armory!” Einuli said, effortlessly picking the two ponies up and hauling them to the teleportation pad.

“Mmm…” Shining chewed on his lip as he was sat down, he now saw that the augments in the raptors body were no joke.

“Hey, I can design something to fit you, if you want.” Einuli offered as he hit two buttons on the nearby control panel. The three found themselves inside a massive metal cavern. Shining now had his time to gawk as he saw weapons and tech the likes of which had NEVER been seen on Equus, only in science fiction and movies had he seen mechs, laser weapons, and hell even GUNS. But here was that and more, including various high tech swords, spears, shields, maces, and all sorts of other weapons he HAD seen before. That was just the tip of the iceberg, there was armor of so many different kinds on stands all around the room.

“Oh my gods…” Shining fell to his knees attempting to take it all in.

“I think we should leave him here…” Cadance said.

“Alright! But first, there’s a testing room over there.” Einuli said, pointing to a doorway. “No damage will occur if you use them in there, and you can test them in different environments and against other things that I’ve encountered. Have fun! Oh, and it’s the button marked ‘Home’ to get to my treehouse.” He patted Shining’s shoulder.

“A-alright… um, I-I’ll catch up later…” Shining mumbled.

Einuli motioned Cadance to follow him, the two stepping back onto the teleportation pad. He hit the button labeled ‘Home’ and soon they were standing on a pad on the deck of Einuli’s home.

“Here’s my home!” Einuli smiled, bouncing inside the tree house, Cadance giggling at the nearly foallike behaviour of the over excited space raptor. She followed him inside and right into his kitchen. She noticed that despite the rustic exterior the entire inside was definitely high tech. “You can help me find something to make!” He said, “I went through about five cookbooks looking for something to eat…”

“I’ll help you make it too.” Cadance suggested, taking a cookbook of the shelf.

“If you don’t find anything just throw it to the ground. Aleris will take care of putting it back.” Einuli pointed to the little device on the ceiling.

“Alright.” Cadance nodded now beginning to look through the cookbook.

--------------------------------------------------

Twenty minutes later:

Cadance and Einuli had nearly finished when a sweat covered and panting Shining limped into the room.

“Ooh… th-that was a lot…” Shining groaned, collapsing into a chair. “I-I should have figured they’d be heavy.”

“I forgot about that! Sorry…” Einuli apologized. “Hmmm, maybe I co… eh, that’d take a bit more than just enhancing muscles…” He tapped his chin.

“I’m fine. Just it’s been awhile since I actually got to fight like that.” Shining laughed. “What are you two making?”

“Something called… um, Ants On a Plate.” Cadance said, “It’s really amazing!”

“I have no idea why there was a book called ‘CowChop’ in the shelf, or what a ‘CowChop’ even is…” Einuli rubbed the back of his head. “Sounds familiar though… strange how some of it called for ‘macing people in the dick’ or something stupid like ‘squirting hotsauce up your friend’s nose’. But this turned out pretty good.” He shrugged. “Dunno what that first thing is though.”

“Oooh, looks like I’ll have to give you the talk.” Cadance joked.

“Please don’t, we don’t need him going to give himself a dick.” Shining sighed, “Especially not with YOU behind it.”

“Psssh, you sound like you’d be jealous. I could re-design yours too Shinny.” Cadance laughed.

“I could do that! It wouldn’t be too hard nor would it require any additional augments, at least from the research that others have done.” Einuli chirped up causing the two ponies to turn to stare at him. “But, I think it seems a bit wasteful… like it’s all on the outside, and it’s sensitive… so it might get hurt. I’d assume that’s pretty disabling…” He mused.

“Oooh boy. Don’t get either of us started.” Shining said, glancing to Cadance who was staring intently at Einuli.

“Einuli sit down. I’m going to tell you some things. And maybe, Shining can help me… show you some things.” Cadance stated.

“What.” Shining said.

“Be quiet and eat.” Cadance teleported a plate of food into Shining’s hands and pulled Einuli into another room.

“Um… I’m not having sex in front of an alien!” He stated.

“THAN YOU’RE SPENDING THE NIGHT WITH THE GUARD!” Cadance called back.

“Fuck me…” Shining groaned, letting his head hit the table.

> Chapter 6: Science (Maybe)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What did you want to talk to me about?” Einuli inquired, looking up at the Princess.

“There’s a few things…” Cadance started, sitting down in a chair. “Why don’t you have a seat?” Einuli plopped down in a chair and looked up at Cadance. She took notice of all four of his ears seemed to be tilted towards her. “Good! Let’s begin your lesson.” She grinned happily, beginning to explain nearly every facet she could manage of love and sex.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So… mating… isn’t just about reproduction?” Einuli pipped up after her explanation as he tried to understand what she was talking about. “Hmm…” He tapped his chin, glancing down for a moment. “It sounds interesting… but I’m kind of…” He paused for a moment. “Though I figure I could just create one…” He sighed, “This is a whole lot to try to take in.”

“I’m sure it is.” Cadance nodded, “But, I’m going to tell you, the best way to understand it, is to just experience it. And… well with your cuteness and fluffiness it shouldn’t be too hard to find someone who’d be willing to share that experience with you.”

“Alright!” Einuli hopped up from his chair. “Then I guess we should… go make me a penis, right?” He asked. “Follow me!” He lead her back towards a console, the screen above it lighting up. “Okay um… this will take just a moment…” He started tapping icons on the screen, until what amounted to a design screen came up. “Okay um… I guess it’s up to you from here on.” He said, looking back at Cadance.

“Well, I suppose we could start off with a simple equine model. Would you agree?” Cadence mused with a hand on her chin.

Einuli nodded, “Yeah, it’d be pretty fitting…” He swiped across the screen, and shortly after a rather large equine cock appeared on the screen. “Alright… should there be anything else added to it? Or did you want to go onto dimensions for it?” He glanced back.

Cadence gave a short nod. “Vanilla for now.”

“Alright.” Einuli put in a few things, “Okay proportional to my size…” He paused, “One and a half foot long, since then nothing else on me will have to be adjusted… possibly eight inches thick. Hmm...” The finished product was up on the screen, which both of them mulled over for a moment. “That seems about right.” He said, “Though…” He quickly put a few things into the console underneath the screen. “That… should be good now.” He nodded, “Now the only issue is to… well get it properly on me.”

“Is it a long process? Or painful?” Cadence cringed at the thought, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“I figure adding an additional external part shouldn’t be too painful… Just it’ll be sensitive after the procedure. And if there aren’t any complications… it’ll be about twenty to thirty minutes.” Einuli said. “I’m just worried about how awkward it’ll be for the first few hours…” He shook his head, “Anyway, this part is all up to me. You can stay here and wait for me if you want, or I could meet you back at the castle.”

“I think I’ll just wait for you here.” Cadance smiled.

“Alright! I’ll be back soon!” Einuli said as he vanished into a separate room, the door shutting and locking behind him.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Half an hour later:

The door opened back up, and the small space raptor walked back out, albeit very awkwardly as he now had to deal with the sheath rubbing against his leg. “A-alright, it’s done.” He said. “I’ll… need to re-adjust some things later. But for now, this is going to work.” He seemed slightly less bubbly then before, though Cadance could tell he was just a bit groggy as if he had just woken up.

“You might want to go put something on before we go back down…” Cadance suggested.

“I will… just sort of want to sit down for a bit…” Einuli plopped down in a chair and let out a sigh. After only a few moments he started inspecting his newest body part, shivering slightly as he touched it. He seemed to enthrall himself in touching and prodding it.

“Why don’t you just rest for awhile.” Cadence laughed and approached. She knelt down in front of Einuli, setting herself between his legs. The warmth of her body was soothing to him, and her smile only seemed to reassure him further. 

Einuli’s curiosity grew but he did relax. “What are you doing?” He inquired quietly, looking down curiously at her.

“Ohh, well I thought it’d be appropriate if we test the merchandise.” Cadence brought a finger to her lip in a cute, almost innocent manner.

“That… makes sense.” Einuli nodded, this time Cadence noticed his cock was slowly beginning to harden. He seemed a little uncertain of what was going on though it was far from him being put off, and she had no trouble seeing that.

“Oh come now, you may be an alien, but you must be familiar with how reproduction normally works, right? Even if you don’t have it necessarily for fun.” Cadence laughed, gently reaching a hand up to his cheek.

“I have some ideas… but I’ve never done it.” He nodded, placing his own hand over hers. Cadence was beaming at the simple gesture. The fact he was ready to learn, and the fact this was genuine, it excited her. She has never had the honor of teaching love in this manner before. It was almost romantic.

“Well, most mammals receive pleasure from sex. And being the evolved species we are, we rise above simple needs to procreate. Once sex becomes a luxury, there’s no real point to it other than having fun, bonding, learning…” Cadence continued to explain.

“Huh…” Einuli said quietly, “Well… that does sound pretty good…” He tapped his chin for a moment. “I-I’d… love to experience that…” For the first time since she met him, he actually seemed to be getting a little embarrassed.

“Well, to the bedroom we go!” Cadence stood up and giggled, extending her hand in a manner that suggests walking arm-in-arm. Einuli hopped up and happily took her arm, leading her back to his bedroom. Compared to everything else she had seen up here the bed was remarkably normal, though it looked to be incredibly comfy, almost rivaling the silken sheets she was used to.

“Here we are!” He said, bouncing a little.

Cadence sat him down and took a seat beside him. She placed her hand on his upper thigh. “You sure you wish to do this?” She inquired. Einuli could see she was not in the slightest trying to abuse or take advantage of him. It was rare he met a race that showed such patience and kindness. It was very nice… and it made him feel more at home than he has in a long time.

“I’m sure.” Einuli nodded. “This… just seems like something I should do… I already love it here.” He smiled up at her, “Everyone I’ve met has been so friendly… I just really want to fit in now and… well never leave.”

Cadence let out a pleasant squee, accompanied by the biggest smile he’d seen on anypony so far. She leaned in and hugged him, the warmth of her squishy body was like a little slice of heaven he hadn’t experienced since he was a child and slept in the same bed as his mother. She always helped him sleep when he got insomnia, and the lovely embrace Cadence gave meant so much more. Cadence wasn’t his mother, this was entirely different. He loved her in a completely different way. While he knew they were going to do more than simply hold each other, nostalgia was already building from warm childhood memories.

“You are the sweetest creature I’ve ever seen…” She cooed into his feathers.

Einuli nuzzled even more into Cadence, snuggling up against the much larger mare. He peeked up from her body, a wide and almost goofy smile on his face. 

“I know how to make this twice as fun.” Cadence smiled warmly and stood up, gently pushing him onto his back. Still on her feet, Cadence began to unbutton her blouse. Einuli felt his face heating up as the crest of her breasts grew larger as more was revealed. Eventually, all that was left was a bra covering her upper body. The smooth, pink flesh looked so much softer now for reasons he couldn’t explain.

Einuli began to squirm, the look he gave her was almost like he was asking if it was alright to touch her again. She took notice of his now fully erect cock, it almost looked painful for him, though nowhere near as painful as him not cuddling up against her. “This… I feel soooo hot… and so weird right now…” He said.

“Looks like your body already knows how this works. That makes it simpler for both of us. Your blood is rushing to your new parts. Chemicals are being released. I can only imagine the things your virgin mind wants to do to me.” Cadence purred, her hands beginning to teasingly move her last remaining clothes down. Her hips moved side to side as if she was trying to imitate what a snake does as foreplay. And it certainly was working.

Einuli seemed just on the verge of pouncing, his entire body moving between tense as she drew closer and relaxed as she moved away. She knew she had him in the palm of her hands. “P-please…” He muttered quietly, his hand had moved down to his cock and he was slowly stroking it causing himself to violently shake. That reaction let her know just how sensitive he currently was, and it was almost adorable how badly he wanted her.

Cadence approached, placing her hands on his shoulders. “Shhh… look into my eyes. Take control of your body, and relax.” She whispered in a soothing tone.

Einuli took in a deep breath and his adorably large eyes now met Cadence’s. His body seemed to relax now that at least part of her was touching him again. “I’ll… try.” He said, “W-what exactly are we going to be starting with?”

“I was thinking about showing you the basics of an orgasm.” Cadence suggested, straddling Einuli and sandwiching his hotdog between her plush buns. Regardless of it’s size, the entirety of his shaft disappeared in the mountains of her rump flesh.

“Oh!” Einuli gasped, his body shaking a little under her. “Okay… i-is there anything you wanted me to do?” He asked curiously, taking this entire event as a strange mixture between bonding with her and learning about sex. “A-and can I h-hold you again? T-that felt really nice…”

“How about this. I’ll focus on your new parts.” Cadence gave a gentle kiss to the end of his nose. “You can touch me, grab me, anything you want. Let instinct guide what you want to touch. Whatever makes you feel good. Most ponies find it enjoyable to touch themselves when they’re alone. Their bodies respond to imagery and thoughts. It’s clearly simpler to feel pleasure when you’re in the moment, touching a mare or stallion’s body. But you’re lucky enough to have an actual mare to touch. Less imagination, more experience.”

Einuli took in her instructions and he slowly started to grab and touch her body. His hands moving as best he could with his small size. Though he seemed content to snuggle his face into her neck, rub her back and wings, and lightly touch her breasts. “I’ve never felt anyone… or anything as soft as you.” He said, she then felt what she could only assume to be a kiss get planted on her neck, followed by a flurry of even more. He was using more than just his lips as she occasionally felt him gently lick her, his rough tongue dragging over her skin, tickling her even more than the feathers and soft hands now groping her large breasts.

“Mmm you’re already a natural.” Cadence giggled a compliment. She let her hips slide up, allowing Einuli to feel the cool air of the room. As quickly as he felt it, the air became much warmer as her ass descended again, inevitably ending with the slab of meat smothered once more.

Einuli let out his first actual moan, his eyes sliding shut. She felt him respond by both squeezing her breasts and giving a small thrust up. “Oooh, that’s…” He muttered quietly, burying his face in her neck. He continued kissing and licking her neck, though this time he seemed to add a very light nipping, almost like he was scared to be doing it. Cadence let out a sensual whimper of encouragement at the cute gentle bite he gave. Her eyes met with his, twinkling to confirm that what he was doing was okay.

He smiled slightly and went back to sensually nipping her neck, though his groping and squeezing only grew rougher. He was absolutely enraptured with her body, and she could tell right away he wanted more of her, though he was reluctant to push into the pure unknown and was waiting for her to show him what he was supposed to do. The growing warmth and wetness on her ass was showing how ready he was for anything she put forward, and the strange sweet scent his pre was beginning to give off was almost intoxicating her.

“Hmm… we can do this one of two ways.” Cadence began, her face turning red from the scent and floods of chemicals in her body. “Either you, or I could be in charge. Either way, you’ll be orgasming. The question is, do you want to lay back and let me show you first, or guide you through being intimate with another mare.”

“I…” Einuli started, his mind racing. “I want…” He glanced down at her body. “B-before that… I-I feel like I w-want to um…” He mumbled trailing off. He shook his head, “C-can you be in charge?” He whispered, “I-I feel like I r-really should be p-pleasing you though…”

“Oh sweetie, we’ll both be having fun. I won’t stop until that’s certain.” Cadence winked and laughed. “I’m just asking what you want to do first. I want you to relax for the first round. Pick one thing to do. I can do you, or you can do me.”

Einuli nodded slowly, “U-um could you…” He looked away for a moment, “Ride me then? I-If that’s the right term…” His eyes met hers again, and in them she saw his need. “Please?” He asked quietly.

Cadence responded by pushing Einuli onto his back. She ascended up, her pampered wings extending fully. She beamed down at him as her slit touched the head of his cock. “Are you ready sweetie?” Einuli nodded vigorously.

“Yes!” He said excitedly, she could almost feel his cock twitching with his now rapid heart beat. Once again she could swear he was about to pounce on her. Cadence saw the overly happy smile plastered across his face as he awaited her next move. She felt his incredibly hot pre begin to smear against her lips, leaving her with a chilling feeling deeper inside.

“Let’s make this a little easier.” Cadence extended a hand down, smearing the pre around his shaft and lubing up the pleasure staff. He shivered at her warm touch and unconsciously pushed up, his tip now spreading her open. Though as quickly as he pushed up he dropped right back down onto the bed.

“Ooh… that feels so much better than my hand did…” Einuli moaned.

“Then let’s get started.” Cadence purred, putting her weight down hard. In one swift motion, Einuli went  from cold, to searing hot flesh smothering his hardness. He let out the most adorable squawk as his entire body tensed up. She felt him throb deep within her, his pre leaking out in copious amounts.

Einuli seemed at a loss for any reaction, only able to pant and gasp as he tried to adjust to the sudden feeling of his cock being completely engulfed. His tension seemed to fade after nearly a minute and his eyes met hers once again. He seemed to be adapting rather rapidly to his new appendage and that would just make the entire act even better for both of them. He hands slid over her hips and stomach almost like he was feeling up as much of her body as he could. “Oooh… I didn’t… expect that feeling…” He panted.

“You’re not so bad yourself hotshot.” Cadence purred with a wink. Her hips began to move, rising up the tower she was impaled on.

“H-heh, really?” He asked giddily, smiling up at her. Somehow he only seemed to be growing cuter by the moment, it was like he was truly clawing at her heart in the best ways possible. He let out a loud gasp as she dropped back down onto his hips, “Oooh…” He breathed, his eyes snapping shut, his ears twitching rapidly.

“Ohh goodness. You don’t have to worry about my pleasure.” Cadence’s head rolled in circles a few times as she began bouncing. Her insides grew tighter, and wetter. The slick lubricant she provided made the tightness absolutely painless. In fact, something about it getting tighter made it feel even better. And it just kept going…

He let out one last groan before she felt his hands tighten on her hips, soon he was adding an uncontrolled thrusting to her own bounces. “A-aalright…” He grunted quietly, pounding up into her. The pleasure building up rather quickly, she could feel his first orgasm incoming, and something told her it was going to be huge. “A-aah…” He moaned loudly, his movements steadily becoming jerkier. “I f-feel something…” His back tightened up and she felt him flare out.

“Ohhh dear!” Cadence’s voice cracked momentarily at the rough ride she signed up for. The princess of love was no familiar to a stallion, and even mare’s, orgasm. It was always the best part. Something about the other pony locking up, twisted expression, eyes rolling. The sight is why she loved sex so much. Most of the time she didn’t care about her own orgasm, but then Einuli came. On the rare occasion, she would get both a good experience, and a good partner. Einuli was still new, but it only takes one time to know when a mare is orgasming too. He saw the usually stoic mare beginning to break down. Her face was beautiful, eyes fluttering. Her chest was heaving, and the two lips kissing the base of his shaft were twitching. 

Twitching subtly as part of a grander scheme. While they may look simply like they were twitches, the entirety of her vaginal walls were spasming. Tight, loose, tight, loose. Wet, wetter, wetter! There was no end in sight, at least for her. Einuli didn’t have to think for long to understand that it was an orgasm that he felt coming to it’s peak. He was trying to find something to say, but then his breath was taken away. Cadence’s head fell back, and she let out a loud, angelic cry. Like a choir of cherubs ringing in his ears. Then his mind went numb with orgasm.

His own orgasm, though nowhere near as loud, was just as grand. Being his first time, the feeling of the burning hot liquid pumping through his shaft felt like a heaven send, it felt like everything had been building to this single moment. Einuli could barely think now, all that was left was the animal instinct to fill Cadence, and he was more than succeeding at that. There was no indication as to how big his orgasm was going to be, and it was a thrilling feeling as the strangely thick seed flooded every inch of her marehood, his cockhead not managing to so much as stop the flow from escaping. It stuck and clung to her walls bringing her even more pleasure than she thought could have been possible. Einuli was equally in heaven as his cock throbbed and twitched, every single ounce of stress now being poured out in one glorious and earth shaking moment.

He continued to squeeze her hips, holding her down in what could only be an attempt to keep her nice and full of his seed. He could only growl quietly as he waited desperately for his orgasm to finish, it had definitely set something off inside of him, and that was shown by how he vainly tried to buck his hips now. He was going to fuck her senseless once he actually got control, that was the only sure thing left.

“Oh sweet mercy Celestia... “ Cadence breathed in what could only be described as utter satisfaction. She leaned forward, pressing her forehead to Einuli’s and cupping his cheeks. “Welcome to the Pony Race.”

“It’s… amazing.” Einuli replied, wrapping his arms tightly around her. She only let out a soft gasp as she found herself on her back, the small raptor vastly overpowering her. Though she had no qualms against what came next, his thick shaft, still twitching after his orgasm began to pound right back into her, managing to pressure her g-spot constantly. The only one who could ever match up (Though he was vastly superior for reasons only Cadence could understand) was her husband, though it was nice to show this little alien what love and sex was, even if she’d be missed for a while, and that she was...

> Chapter 7: The Calm Breaks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following day:

Both Cadance and Shining were tired beyond what they had felt since Sombra. Cadance was sexually fatigued, given little rest by the boundless alien, Shining’s entire body hurt to move. He'd experienced combat as he'd never felt. The AI on the ship constructing simulations of things he would hope to never actually experience. The toughest of such made a combined assault of Tirek, the Changelings, and Sombra seem like a damn play set.

But they were both brought back to full health when Einuili injected them both with a Stimpack.

“Whaaa…” Shining muttered, feeling returning to his aching body.

Cadance felt as though she had a wonderful rest, and movement was the first thing to return for her.

“Wonderful! They work on your species too! That means cross contamination and infection is impossible!” The fluffy space raptor said giddily.

“And… if it hadn’t worked?” Shining inquired.

“Mmm, it would have made you puke at worst. At best, nothing.” Einuli shrugged.

“Ah…” Shining let out a sigh, falling from his chair.

Cadance glanced to Einuli’s crotch, honestly hoping he wasn’t hard. But she did a double take as there was nothing there.

Einuli noticed her eyes tracing over where his sheathe was. “I made it internal. If I get aroused it’ll come out. It just makes it easier to move.” He explained. “For me it’s more efficient to have it like this… as um, after what you showed me. I don’t want to get rid of it. But, I feel as though… I should find someone else to love. You and Shining belong together.” He whispered, “All, and I mean all of his simulations involved… well protecting you.”

Cadance smiled, “Really?”

“Yep. The first few… he just goofed off, but when Silius actually began to put you in them… well he doubled his efforts and pushed himself to nearly the breaking point. I… Thank you for what you showed me but, I feel as though it should… remain where it was. Let’s… just remain as friends. You have a loving and caring husband. I don’t, and never will, want to step between you too.” Einuli started.

“Oh, don’t worry… you nor anypony else could ever come between us.” Cadance assured. “And I think that’s a wonderful idea, I do hope you’ll come visit us sometime too.”

“I could install a teleporter wherever you live! I wouldn’t mind letting any of my friends access my home.” Einuli offered, grinning once again, now hauling Shining back up, he had passed out completely. “You should get some sleep too, the energy boost the stimpack gave you will wear off soon.”

Cadance nodded… off. Einuli lifted up the sleeping Alicorn, carrying both of them to the teleported, taking them back to Canterlot.

Celestia, Luna, and Twilight were waiting patiently by the teleporter. “Hi!” Einuli said quickly. The three mares were staring wide-eyed at the two unconscious ponies slung over the raptor’s shoulders.

“W… what…” Celestia muttered.

“Shining over-exerted himself, too much muscular stimulation, he’s probably going to be asleep for a full day. Cadance showed me a lot of thing! We were at it for hours. She’ll be asleep for just as long.” Einuli explained.

“She showed you…” Luna began.

“Oh gods.” Celestia muttered, taking a step back, before realizing the friendly little raptor hadn’t changed all that much. He wasn’t turned into some sex crazed demon, just Einuli.

“What did she show you?” Twilight asked.

“Um, what your species calls love. And sex… it was really nice. I… haven’t felt like that in a long time. So… I just didn’t want it to end.” Einuli said quietly. Celestia’s magic lifted the two sleeping ponies up, her and Luna leaving Twilight alone with the saddened Einuli.

Twilight approached, “What do you mean?” She asked, kneeling down beside him.

“Loved… not since…” He began, shaking a little. Twilight wrapped her arms around him.

“Shh… shh…” Twilight caressed his head. “You are loved Einuli. I don’t know about our friends opinions, but I know I love you.” She smiled, nuzzling him before gently kissing his lips. “Now, no more sad thoughts. Everypony was missing you, so let’s go see them.”

“Alright.” Einuli looked up at Twilight with wide eyes. He hugged her tightly, the feathery fluff ball hauling the young alicorn up, holding her in his arms as he nuzzled her with all the warmth and care her words brought out. He was truly adorable and she didn’t regret telling him that she loved him for a single second. She pushed him down onto the ground and the two nuzzled and cuddled for several long minutes. He was so warm and comfy, Twilight was content to lay here on top of the small bed she was being given. But she knew her friends were worried about Einuli.

“Perhaps you can spend tonight with me?” Twilight offered, smiling down at the giddy alien.

“Yes!” He nodded quickly.

“Great! We’ll have all night to cuddle, for now, lets go see everypony else.” She lifted him up, leading him out of the room.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UNKNOWN:

Unbeknownst to Einuli he had been followed into this sector of space, holding a position at another nearby planet in the strange and unnatural solar system, was a massive half-organic once human Astera-Class Battleship. The plant matter hardy and easily surviving the depths of space as it spread at a crawling rate across the hull. In the bridge the leader of the Floran Pirates that had been tracking the Avali for some time watched the colorful world in the far distance.

“Ssssir?” One of the other pirates approached.

“He’ssss there…” The captain responded, “Begin preperationsss immediately. He’ll put up a fight…”

The other floran nodded, vanishing back into the main part of the ship. The floran captain took a bite out of the remains of the corpse that had once been the human captain of the ship. “Mmm, perhapsss, there will be more food on thisss planet…” He mused, leaning back, “We ssshall ssssee.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Equestria:

“So… you believe he’s being followed.” Luna began.

“Yes. Or it’s more of his kind coming to attack.” Celestia nodded. “But… the strangeness of the object. It was… organic. At least that’s what my magic picked up.”

“Organic? How is that possible?” Luna sighed.

“I don’t know, but I feel Einuli might. Perhaps we should ask him.” Celestia said, tapping her chin. “But… as of now, I feel… maybe it isn’t with him. He… doesn’t seem like the type of creature to lie.”

“No, though he has seemed eager to ‘befriend’ us.” Luna mused.

“I don’t believe he’s hostile. There’s no indication of any ill intentions… but we’ll have to wait for Cadance and Shining to awaken.” Celestia stated, “Cadance will have a… more refined opinion.”

“Yes, refined by sex.” Luna laughed.

“Let’s just hope he was vulnerable during it. And she managed to decipher any… hidden agendas he may have.” Celestia sighed quietly, glancing out the window.

“Or perhaps Twilight may be able to. She was… antsy to say the very least when he didn’t return, I… I believe she placed more importance on his safety than Cadance and Shining’s.” Luna sighed, glancing to Celestia.

“Perhaps she might be able to convince him to not be hostile… but I worry she might be convinced to join him…” Celestia mumbled.

“She wouldn’t leave unless she had a guarantee she was coming back. Sister, the best thing we can do is not worry. His ship, despite the armaments, seems less like a warship, and more like…”

“A home.” Celestia nodded. “Well… we’ll have to see tomorrow.”

-------------------------------------------------------

Later that night:

Pinkie had give Einuli his first taste of a party and the fluffy ball of doom had collapsed on a bed beside Twilight. He was fully tired, just really wanting to sleep. Twilight agreed with him, having had to deal with various nobles trying to have him dragged off to be brought with them. They were treating the kind and caring creature like some sort of new fashion statement. It angered her to think they’d think so lowly of another living creature. She nuzzled up against him, the two returning to cuddling.

“Nnnaaah… I love this so much… I never want to leave.” Einuli snuggled into her body.

“I can tell.” Twilight laughed, a wide smile coming across her face.

“Maybe sometime soon I can fina-” Einuli stopped as something dinged on his cloak. He reached down and activated it. After a moment he went rigid.

“Einuli?”

“Floran… no… no they can’t… How…” He began to freak out, rolling off the bed before charging out of the room. Twilight chased after him, he was following either a scent or a sound as he snaked around guards and nobles that attempted to stop him. Thankfully both Luna and Celestia had returned to Celestia’s room. They were both startled by the agitated and shaking Avali. “We have a major problem!”

> Chapter 8: New Friends?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Einuli brought up a basic explanation of the Floran race, projecting it onto a wall for the three princesses, “... that they are able to make peaceful societies that are able to live in harmony with the other non-plant races.” Was the ending of it, leaving all three in awe.

“This group of Florans… i-if the scans are right. Are more than just hyper-violent… they hate all non-plant life, seeking to destroy it whenever they come across it. They figured out a way to infect non-plants and begin to turn them into plant life… but I’ve seen the consequences of it. They become violent and consume non-plants en masse. Entire settlements… my pack… all consumed each other. I had to put down my closest friends to survive…” He shivered, Twilight instantly wrapping her arms around him. Celestia and Luna’s earlier fears were wiped away, they realized just how scared he was of them. “I won’t… ever let them harm any of you… or any living thing on this planet… Prepare your guards… I… I believe magic can stop blaster fire, and bullets.”

“Alright, we’ll alert every settlement, town, and city. We’ll also begin alerting our allies of this new threat.” Celestia said.

“Sister…” Luna began.

“Twilight, make sure everypony makes it home safely. I’ll have guards detached to defend Fluttershy, and Sweet Apple Acres.” Celestia continued.

“No, they’ll come after me first. I… I figured out a way to counteract the parasite… thing… and they want me dead. I’ll get my mech down here… I can protect the town.” Einuli said. Twilight looked at him for a few moments.

“Mech? M… may I see it?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Of course!” Einuli spun around, nuzzling her warmly. The other two princesses watched the the alien and violet alicorn giggle and laugh. It brought a small warmth to their hearts, he truly didn’t mean any harm… he was lonely and arriving here brought an end to that all.

“You two, go enjoy your last day in the city. Thank you for letting us know of this threat.” Celestia smiled, Einuli and Twilight walking out of the room.

“So, what else do you have on board your ship?” Twilight inquired.

“Why don’t we go spend the night up there? I’ll show you as much as I can before we go to sleep!” Einuli said hopefully.

“That sounds amazing! Let’s go!” Twilight grabbed his hand and the two vanished in a flash of light, re-appearing at his teleportation hub. “So… you gave us a basic overview of the Florans… have you met any nice ones?”

“A few… quite some time ago. But, if my comms were up and I had the proper upgrades for it I could make contact with them. Perhaps when the drive is functioning in full you would like to meet them?” Einuli offered, “Or…”

*ALARM, ALARM, INCOMING COMMUNICATION LINK, UNKNOWN SHIP!*

Einuli hit a button and the two appeared inside what appeared to be the cockpit of the huge bio-ball. “Bring it to full screen!” Einuli said quickly, rushing to the captain’s chair.

As he sat down the screen came up.

Einuli went dead silent.

“Whaaaatssss up!” A voice only he recognized spoke. A strange creature (at least for Twilight, hell anything not of Equus was strange for her).

“What.” Einuli said.

“Issss he there? Isss it him?” Another voice said, this one just off screen.

“TELL ME THE FLUFF BALL IS THERE! IF HE IS I’M TELEPORTING RIGHT NOW!” A female voice shouted.

“Einuli’s there.” The Novakid on screen said, turning to look at someone off screen. “He also has a fr aaaand Suzy’s gone. Damn it.” The bright blue Novakid turned to look at the screen again.

“Are you… is everything just following me?” Einuli sighed.

“Are they…” Twilight began.

“We were tracking the piraaaaH!” He was dragged off screen.

“Einuli!” The floran who had been just off screen waved.

“Hi Femati!” Einuli smiled and waved back.

“EINU- Bitch who are you?” Suzy stopped, the tall black skinned human female stopped dead in her tracks. The ex-marine glared heavily at Twilight who glared right back.

“Suzy… calm down…” Einuli and Femati said, though Femati had her lisp.

“Ooow… why did you slam my head into the console…” The novakid’s voice came up.

“Ssssstay down!” Femati stomped. “I wanna talk to Einuli!”

“OOOOW!”

“Femati stop abusing Dandy.” An unknown voice spoke.

“Quite Ayaka.” Femati waved him off.

“Right. Just… abuse our captain.” Ayaka groaned.

“Paaainnnn…” Dandy groaned.

“Who the hell are you, and what are you doing near MY fluffy raptor!” Suzy said, pushing Twilight aside to pull Einuli into a hug.

“Excuse me?” Twilight snapped, teleporting the confused raptor into her arms.

“What… I’m alive and fully conscious…” Einuli said.

“It won’t stop them.” The three other back on the bridge of the other ship said simultaneously.

“But…”

“You will not corrupt my innocent little fur ball!” Suzy growled, pulling Einuli back.

“He ripped a man’s throat out.” Dandy stated. “Twice.”

“INNOCENT!” Suzy shouted.

“You will not take him away from me!” Twilight retorted. “I don’t care what he’s done. He’s still my friend and I love him!”

“What? You love him? How long have you known him… and what did you do to him?” Suzy growled, only to be stopped dead by Twilight’s magic.

“Ooooh my… he hassss…” Femati said, “Oooh thissss isss… sssshocking.”

“What does h… oh my god. He’s gone insane! Why would he need…” Dandy began.

“What does he have?” Suzy snapped.

“HOLY SHIT IT’S A HORSE’S COCK!” Ayaka appeared on screen, shouting loudly and startling everyone.

“Eh hem, it’s a pony's cock. Not a horse's.” Twilight corrected.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FLUFF BALL!” Suzy growled again, nearly breaking Twilight’s magic.

“She didn’t do anything to me! I decided to add it myself!” Einuli snapped, causing Suzy to recoil. He pushed out of Twilight’s arms. “Now! Twilight let Suzy go! And you both, NO attacking each other!”

Twilight let go of Suzy and the human looked wide-eyed at Einuli.

“Siris. Screen and mic off. Turn off teleporters and lock bridge.” Einuli ordered. The blast doors slid shut and everything else happened at once. Both females paused, staring wide-eyed as they were cut off (at least Suzy was) from the outside world. “Enough.” He growled, forcing them both to sit down. He was strong and fast, they both saw that now, scarily so when he wanted to be. Suzy had seen him in combat, but it was always against other, not her so she froze up for the first time as she was forced down to the ground. Twilight was equally as frozen as she too was forced down.

“Now, we’re going to talk.” He plopped down in front of them, glancing between the two of them.


“A-about what?” Suzy asked quietly.

“Don’t…”

“You’re both my friends.” Einuli began, “And… I don’t want you both fighting over me.”

Both women sighed, relaxing and realizing he had just used his strength and speed to lull them into submission.

“Oh, thank god… I thought… with…” Suzy laughed quietly. She knew how much energy this beast of fluff had in him, and the thought of a dick on it scared her as much as it intrigued her. He was cuddly, warm, and loving towards all his friends.

Twilight sighed, smiling a little again, “Okay…” She nodded.

“Suzy, the life on this planet is friendly… please don’t start fighting it.” Einuli pleaded.

“I won’t… just, what… how long have you been here?” Suzy asked, looking up at him.

“A few days.” Einuli said.

“And… th-she…”

“It wasn’t her. After hearing about it… I wanted to try it.” Einuli explained.

Suzy sighed, “Alright.”

“I haven’t changed beyond that. I do feel connected to Twilight… just like I feel connected to you.” Einuli cupped her cheek before hugging both females close. The two hugged him back. “Thank you.” He pulled back, still holding the both of them. The two women looked at each other. The fire of competition was still burning, but instead of fighting they’d had a different idea. For now though, it was concealed between them, the more ‘innocent’ (at least in this regard) alien not understanding female competition. He only knew he cared for them both, and that their fighting had ended. He only hoped Suzy wouldn’t attempt to kill Cadance for convincing him to gain his new feature.

“Siris, unlock bridge and teleporters.” Einuli said as he walked to the entryway of the bridge. The doors slid open in front of him and he walked out.

“He’s mine.” Suzy growled to Twilight.

“He’s not either of ours.” Twilight retorted. “You can’t just own a sentient being like that.”

“Says the one who’s just going to use him for sex.” Suzy snapped back.

“Riiiight, you know. I didn’t think, ‘Oh look alien! I wonder how he is in bed!’ When I first saw him. It was ‘An alien! This is amazing! I hope he’s friendly…’ You know, priorities. Something I have. And you seem to lack.” Twilight huffed. “He’s my friend, and I care about him. Nothing you say or do can change that.”

“I’m going to be a better friend than you could be. Just you watch.” Suzy stood up, glaring at the alicorn.

“Oh please. You wouldn’t be able to handle him. He sent a being of pure love into a tizzy and she’s going to be out cold for a day at least. I’m suuuuuure a regular… thing, like you could toootally handle him. Totally.” Twilight scoffed, also standing up so the two were at eye level.

"I've known him for a lot longer... I'll make sure you won't get to see him again..." Suzy growled, "And I'm a human by the way, you overgrown two legged show-horse." She stormed out of the bridge.

"I'm a pony! You hairless ape!" Twilight snapped back, teleporting herself out.

Unbeknownst to the two, Einuli kept up recording them, the mics he disabled had only been that for comms... and he wasn't about ready to give up on getting them to be friendly with each other. Regardless of what he had to do.
> Chapter 9: Gundam! (No, not really)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Einuli sighed, his head in his hands. “What am I going to do…” He muttered, still agitated over the fact that two creatures he considered to be his closest friends were fighting.

Twilight teleported into the room he was in, successfully beating the marine to their target. “Einuli!” She smiled, hugging him. The little fluff ball hid his agitation and smiled a little.

“Hi, Twilight.” He sighed, hugging her back.

“So, you were going to show me your mechs?” Twilight said happily, pulling back.

“Yeah! Come on!” Einuli tugged her to the nearby pad, hitting a few buttons on the command console beside it. The two appeared in what amounted to his hanger. The biodome was as large as Canterlot Mountain. This hanger had to be the size of the full castle there. Mechs, suits, and other various vehicles were all around the hanger. It wasn’t just limited to ground vehicles either. Twilight was in absolute awe, this ship was the pinnacle of technology (Not really, that was reserved for a planet Einuli had visited, it was inha- That’s reserved for another time :P). At least for Equestria it was. She wanted to move her entire castle up here. It’d fit 100 times over. Hell Ponyville would fit and there’d still be more than enough room for triple the population.

“How did you manage to live alone up here?” Twilight inquired.

“I wasn’t always alone… um, Avenged Sevenfold, that’s the name of my friends ship… Suzy named it after they took it from a group of human marines… Can fit in here.” He motioned to the massive open spot, it was about the size of Twilight’s Castle.

“Holy…” Twilight mumbled.

“So, which mechs did you want to see?” Einuli inquired, motioning to the various suits scattered around the hanger.

“Why… oh… there’s…” Twilight mumbled, her brain going haywire as the grade of his tech boggled her mind.

“Why don’t I show you some of my favorites? I’ll take you through one of each variety. Military, Civilian, Peacekeeper, Exploration, and of course one of the stranger varieties.” Einuli began, leading her to one that looked like a police unit. “This is a peacekeeper mech.” He began, the white, blue, and black armor making it look more friendly than some of the others. It had thick armor plating on it,  though it appeared capable of moving freely. “This used to be a police mech, used to deter massive riots and prisoners. I salvaged it from a penitentiary planet. It’s capable of shooting out gas canisters with various things in them. Tear gas, smoke bombs, and of course a foam that freezes on contact. It has a stun baton that can take down a small tank without harming the occupants. It also has mobile taser lines that can disable other mechs, as well as an emp that can be fired and latch onto metal, disabling any electronics inside.”

Twilight was wide-eyed and ecstatic the fact that something so big and destructive looking could be so… non-violent was truly a wonder.

Einuli lead her to a smaller mech this one a slick silver, one outfitted with jets, wings, and various tools. “This is my exploration mech, named S7. It can launch drones to scout and map massive areas. It can fly long distances, and the tools can clear out areas of wood, plants, and rocks. It has a huge carrying capacity several hundred tonnes.” Einuli explained.

“Woah… c-can I get access to any maps you have from planets you’ve been to?” Twilight asked.

“Of course! What’s mine is yours.” Einuli grabbed her hands and nuzzled her. She returned the nuzzle, hugging him back.

“Alright, so which one is next?”

“Well, the civilian mech is made for construction and rescue… it has the highest lifting capacity. Haven’t reached it yet, thankfully. But I figure it’s in the seven or eight thousand ton range.” Einuli began, motioning to the bright yellow mech. It looked heavily armored, but it was so bright, it was impossible to miss.

“Alright, that’d be really useful for a lot of work in Equestria.” Twilight nodded.

“Aaand over here is Sarge.” Einuli brought her over to a massive mech. It was outfitted with things she had never seen. Turrets and different armaments.

“What’s… all over it?”

“Well… it’s outfitted with Anti-Aircraft guns, capable of tearing through Tritium. .75 Caliber machine guns. A SAM launcher, and enough ammunition to rival a mercenary battalion. There’s also the…” Einuli continued to explain all the weapons in detail. Twilight was in absolute awe, it was better armed than the entirety of the guard force in Ponyville, just on one massive unit.

“W… what…” Twilight mumbled.

“It’s all conventional weapons, useless against plasma shielding and energy weapons, but still. Good for taking down lower grade vehicles. Beyond that there are more specialized ones that cause less destruction.” Einuli explained, “Leading right into the ‘Warlock’.” He motioned to the much shorter mech nearby. It was only about 15 feet tall.


“Why is it named ‘Warlock’?” Twilight inquired.

“I just thought the name fit.” He shrugged. “It uses nano-technology on a larger scale, and is capable of replicating some forms of… well at least from what I’ve seen, magic, at least some that humans thought was real.”

“Like what? Teleportation… levitation…” Twilight prodded.

“It can change the energy around its’ blades, create extra blades in the air, levitate large objects, create kinetic shielding at will. Absorbs inorganic materia to create more nanomachines. It can also create various other weapons at will. And use the nanomachines as projectiles, grouping them together to fire at a target.” Einuli explained. “Later I could run you through some VR simulations.”

“I’d love that! But, I do want to show you where I live. It’s only fair.” She said, “But, we’ll have to ta-”

“Oooh! I could show you some of my smaller vehicles! Specifically my high altitude air transports!” He got even giddier. He pulled her along towards another hanger. Twilight just sighed, letting the eager space raptor pull her around. But her awe returned as she saw the aircraft in this hanger. “The hanger beside this one includes ground and water vehicles.” He explained.

“A… are you going to fly one of these down?” She inquired.

“No, I will.” Suzy finally re-appeared, this time in a pilot's uniform.

“That’s great!” Einuli bounced.

“We’re taking the Swallow down.” Suzy motioned to the pitch black aircraft, it looked nothing like the bird it was named after (looking a lot more like a bigger f-117 which it was crafted after). “Get in, strap down, it’s gonna be a really bumpy ride. Once we’re in the actual atmosphere and closer to the ground, you can give instructions as to where you live.”

“You can’t miss it, there’s a giant crystal castle… but shouldn’t we, you know, tell my friends we’re heading there? They’ll want to meet us there.” Twilight questioned.

“You can do that! It’ll take twenty or so minutes for the shielding and electronics to warm up fully.” Einuli explained.

“Alright! I’ll be back soon!” Twilight ran to the teleporter pad, going back down to Canterlot.

“Einuli.” Suzy started.

“She’s my friend!” Einuli retorted, turning to face her.

“I understand that… but, she might just be using you. Look at this world, it’s so peaceful… why would she be interested in military grade tech?” Suzy grumbled, raising an eyebrow.

“I offered to show her those mechs. And MY vehicles. Just like I offered to show Shining my weapons and tools.” Einuli snapped.

“Right. I’m sure they didn’t offer you any-”

“They haven’t other than talking to me, and now offering to show me her home.” Einuli crossed his arms, shaking his head slowly. “Don’t give me some bullshit about everything is evil, everything wants to kill you. You and I both know how stupid, and untrue that is.”

“You know nothing of this world, none of us do!” Suzy retorted.

“Then why not find out? Learn what they like, what they do, what they know. Hell, maybe if some of them are smart enough, strong enough, courageous enough, they could come with me! It’d be fun and awesome to finally have some friends constantly with me… it’s lonely you know, when you and Avegned’s crew go off on your own… ‘specially aft…” He trailed off choking a little. “I’m… going to go get ready…” He turned.

“Einuli…” Suzy began, realizing now why he was opening up to the friendly ponies. “W…” He had already walked away.

> Chapter 10: Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two Hours Later:

Suzy had guided the ship to a clearing in the Everfree. Twilight was incredibly inquisitive about the ship, Suzy being the one to answer her questions as Einuli was still silent.

“Any more questions?” Suzy asked.

“No!” Twilight smiled, unbuckling herself and standing as the decent ramp extended. Einuli followed suit, about to walk out.

“Einuli… I’m sorry.” Suzy said, glancing to him. The raptor paused, turning to look at her. “I really am… I shouldn’t have gone off on you… You… lost everything and… if you’re happy with these ponies… then I’ll leave it be. I don’t want you to… be alone. Not after how broken we found you, that was… absolutely horrible.”

Einuli was quiet for a little while longer, “I… can’t rightly be mad at you. I know you’re trying to watch my back… trying to keep me sane and safe from harm but… I can’t ever learn if I don’t fall.” He sighed, “If I don’t get hurt I can’t grow stronger.”

“I’ll join you guys soon. I need to make sure this little birdy doesn’t get it’s wings clipped.” Suzy smiled, hugging Einuli. “Just still, be careful. I doubt every creature on this planet will take an alien so kindly. Even a fluffy little one.”

“I will. I doubt they’ll try anything with Twilight around though.” Einuli chuckled, “I’ll see you soon!” He ran out of the aircraft, quickly finding Twilight.

“Is Suzy coming?” She inquired.

“She’ll join us in town. We’re free to go ahead of her!” He replied smiling up at her.

“Great! I can’t wait for you to see Ponyville, just follow me!”

----------------------------------------------------------------

Several minutes later:

“We’re here!” Twilight said happily as she and Einuli walked into town. The small space raptor receiving many curious and odd stares from the large amount of ponies in the center of town. Einuli looked around at the various building he could see as they passed them. He noticed that a vast majority of the ponies seemed more curious than scared of him.

Though he did notice the odd hateful glare he received, and he chose to ignore those. “This is all so great!” He looked back to Twilight who seemed to not really care about how other ponies were viewing her new friend.

“I haven’t even started with giving you a tour! But, for now that can wait, I’ll take you to my castle.” Twilight grabbed his hand and tugged him along, leading him to her massive crystal castle. “Here we are!” Twilight grinned, the guards staring wide-eyed at the alien as he entered with her.

She lead him to the throne room, “You just wait right here! I’m going to go grab Spike I’m sure he’d love to meet you!” She pushed him down into a chair and ran off to locate her friend and assistant.

As if on cue a blue light appeared before Einuli and Suzy teleported into the castle.

“Hi!” Einuli smiled and waved.

Suzy however was in awe as the huge crystal building she was in. “Oh my god…” She mumbled.

“It’s really amazing what they’ve done! They’re all really, really smart!” Einuli said, motioning for Suzy to sit down. The human sat down beside Einuli, looking over the crystal map on the table before them.

“What… even… how…” She muttered. The marine settled back, the curiosity clear on her face. Neither had ever seen anything like that, she set her weapon down and the two patiently waited for Twilight to come down with Spike.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile:

Twilight located Spike up in his room. The second he saw her, Twilight found herself wrapped in a hug.

“You’re safe!” Spike said happily, tears nearly in his eyes.

“Of course I am!” Twilight smiled hugging him back. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Celestia sent me a letter! She said there’s something more dangerous than even Tirek… she wanted me to make sure Ponyville remained safe… I thought something had happened to you, I hadn’t heard anything from you or any of the girls since you all went to Canterlot to investigate that thing you saw…” Spike admitted. “Plus after the Changeling attack a few weeks ago… it’s just all so scary when you leave.”

“Spike… I’m perfectly fine, but really, thank you for worrying.” Twilight’s smile grew as she squeezed the dragon tighter, he was now nearly as tall as her. But to each other they were still brother and sister, nothing could possibly change that. “Well, on a brighter note, I have two creatures I want you to meet. But… please don’t freak out, neither are from Equus.”

“I’ve met plenty of other races, something that isn’t a po- Wait, what do you mean… not from Equus… isn’t that… doesn’t that mean…” Spike choked, his eyes widening.

“Yes. They’re aliens. There’s more and they’re all friendly. But for now, it’s only Einuli and Suzy down here.” Twilight nodded, pulling him towards the door.

“Where are they!?!?” Spike inquired.

“In the throne roo-”

Spike bolted out of the room, leaving Twilight dumbfounded. The alicorn teleported herself down to the throne room. Spike having somehow beat her there. Einuli and Suzy were staring in just as much awe at Spike as he was them.

“Soooo coool!” Spike nearly squeed.

“A… a fucking dragon… holy…” Suzy muttered, noticing instantly how he didn’t have any clothes on, and honestly despite the species difference she thought his muscled chest… his arms… hell he could have been this world’s version of a marine. He was hot. But she shook that thought from her mind, not wanting to run head first into something so life changing so quickly. Sleeping with an alien? Hell, falling in love with one you didn’t know much about? That’s insane. But, just looking at the curious and obviously interesting dragon was attracting her more and more.

“Awesome! It’s so sweet you can speak Equish! That makes this all the better!” Spike said giddily plopping down in a chair across from Suzy. “I’m Spike it’s nice to meet you!”

“I’m… Suzy. It’s nice to meet you too.” Suzy responded.

“I’m Einuli!” Einuli waved.

“How’d you all get here? Where’s your ship? Can I see it? Can I see some of the things you use? What do you two do?” Spike began to fire off questions.

“I got here on a biodome ship.” Einuli said. “Both our ships are in orbit around the planet.”

“I got here on a Thirala Class Cruiser named Avenged Sevenfold.” Suzy responded. “I’m sure you can see both out ships eventually, I’d lo- like to show them to you myself.”

“Awesome!” Spike cheered.

“And later I can show you some of my tech. I… really do whatever.” Einuli added.

“I’m an Ex-marine. After Earth fell, I sorta joined a crew and began exploring the universe. It’s been fun.” Suzy smiled.

“Woah, hey… uuh, Suzy.” Spike started. Twilight and Suzy already knowing what the adult dragon was about to ask.

“Sure! It’d be fun, plus you could show me around town.” Suzy nodded, Spike’s smile grew so wide it looked like it hurt.

“YAY! Come on, I’ll show you to some of my favorite spots!” Spike leaped over the table, scaring Einuli and Suzy as the marine was dragged out of the throne room, leaving Twilight and Einuli alone. Twilight was just left laughing.

“Oooh, those two are going to be great friends.” She chuckled, looking at Einuli. “Now, there’s another pony I want you to meet… She’s my student, and I think it’d be really nice for you two to get to know each other. Just follow me! I’m sure it won’t be too hard to find her.” She stood up, Einuli following suit and walking right beside her.

Twilight lead him right up to Starlight’s bedroom, “Just wait out here, I’ll make sure she’s ready to meet you.” She said, motioning Einuli to stand beside some of the guards. Both of whom were in awe at the alien. “Starlight?” She called softly as she knocked on the door. The unicorn on the other side was quick and eager to call back.

“Twilight! Come in!”

Twilight opened the door and slipped inside, seeing her friend smiling widely as she sat up from her bed. The two mares hugged and Twilight sat down beside Starlight. “It's great to see you're okay! Spike had me so worried, why did Celestia request we double our active duty guards? And increase patrols?”

“There's a serious threat. A new friend of mine suggested we do so, since magic can stop their weapons. So, we're taking his advice.” Twilight explained.

“Wait… new friend, one that knows what the threat is?” Starlight said hesitantly.

“Yes! They're after him since he's been working on something to counter their bio weapon.” Twilight continued, “I wanted you to meet him, he's small fluffy and adorable when he isn't angry or showing off his intelligence.”

“What…”

“He’s right outside.”

> Chapter 11: Starbright
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starlight walked up to her bedroom door, peeking out, her magic muting both her footsteps and the door. She saw a small feathery creature, about four feet tall, was chatting with two of the guards.

“So… steel isn’t strong…”

“For your world it may well be. At least until you discover titanium if it exists on the planet. But in the grand scheme of things, no. It’s… relatively weak.” Einuli replied.

“What… is strong then?”

“Well… it really depends on the planet. Yours is what we’d call a Tier Three Planet. The strongest would be a Tungsten alloy, unless you get really lucky and find Titanium. So, using that Steel IS the strongest you can find here. But, re-forged and folded properly it can be made to be just as strong as Titanium, if not stronger in some cases.” Einuli continued. “I’m not really the best to talk to on these matters… that’d be Staroak. He’s a master with metals and ores.”

The guards nodded, obviously curious about better arms and armor. Starlight stepped out, both guards going to attention. Einuli turned around and smiled up at her.

“Hi!” He waved. Starlight was a bit weary of him, though the strangeness of his appearance gave her a bit of comfort. The black and red feathers, the yellow and black clothes, his pale blue eyes glittering up at her. He wasn’t from Equus that’s for sure. She remained looking into his eyes for several seconds longer, no glow coming from them to signal she was in direct danger.

“Hi…” She said, still keeping a slight distance.

“I’m Einuli, it’s nice to meet you.” He offered his hand. Starlight took it for a moment.

“Like… wise.” She said. Twilight peeked out, and she instantly took notice of Starlight’s hesitation.

Einuli was also quick to notice it and he backed away, trying to make her feel a bit more comfortable. He seemed a bit downtrodden by her reaction, though part of him expected it to happen at some point. “Sorry…” He apologized. “I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.” He looked down for a moment. Starlight sighed quietly.

“It’s just… a lot’s happened to me recently. And with both you, and this new danger showing up at the same time…” Starlight began.

Einuli nodded, “I know… I was hoping I lost them in the jump. But… since I haven’t… It’s my problem to deal with. And I won’t let my problem affect any of you if I can help it.” He explained.

Twilight stepped out, surprising Starlight. “Please, just give him a chance.” She said, “He hasn’t harmed anypony, and… I feel like he won’t, he’s already shown he cares about us.”

Starlight had a frown the whole time. But if Twilight trusted him, she’d give him a chance. “Okay, I will. For you, Twilight.” Starlight finally smiled, hugging the violet mare.

“Thank you.” Twilight hugged her back. “I’ll be here in Ponyville if either of you need me.” She let go of Starlight giving her a soft smile before she walked back down to her throne room.

Only Einuli, the guards, and Starlight were left in the hallway. The small raptor looked up at Starlight, “So… um, did… you want to see my home, or… would you show me around yours?” He asked, he looked unsure, as though this was his only way of getting to know somepony. Looking at him now, he didn’t look the least bit intimidating or threatening. But, knowing someponies close to her, looks only told half the story.

But, Twilight had a running track record of finding the best of every race she came across… the things she did to help Starlight were proof enough of that. She decided, if she was going to go anywhere with him, at least until she knew him a bit better, it’d be in the safety of Ponyville.

“Why don’t I show you around Ponyville?” She offered, beginning to head towards the entrance of the castle.

“Alright!” Einuli said happily, following a safe distance behind her.

“So… um, what exactly… are you? I mean, what does your species call itself?” Starlight asked, trying to tread lightly, but she was honestly a bit curious. He was an alien after all.

“Avali.” Einuli explained, “But, I’ve been called different things by other species and some of my friends.”

“What are… uuuh, some of the ones you prefer to be called?”

“Einuli.” He chirped, smiling a little.

Starlight smiled back, realizing quickly he wasn’t offended by her questions. “No, no I don’t mean like your name.”

“Oooh! Well, uuh, Suzy always calls me her little fluffy space raptor.” Einuli said.

Starlight giggled a little, “Well, I can see why.” She thought for a moment, “What exactly do you do?”

“What do you mean?”


“Hobbies, a job… for a living?”

“Oooh! I’m a medical technician. If you need something done to your body, whether it be augments, healing, or just to know if something’s wrong, I can help!” Einuli said proudly. “I… actually want to take a few scans, or get ahold of something that can help me with the species on this planet’s anatomy. It’d be really useful, and it’d help further my knowledge.” He added.

“I think I can help with that, we’ll swing by the hospital at some point. I’m sure a doctor there would be willing to help.” Starlight said.

“Great! But that can wait.” Einuli smiled. “I wanna get to know you.”

Starlight smiled, “Well, you have all the time in the world to get to know me. I want to learn a bit more about you.” The two left the castle now, Starlight leading him off towards the center of town. Now she could see… it. The way some ponies in town stared at him, some mares pulling their foals aside. She glanced back to Einuli who seemed utterly unconcerned… like this was a normal reaction for him and… it just didn’t bother him. Or… was it that he just didn’t care? Did she being friendly to him off set all the glares and distrust that some other ponies looked at him with?

“Where are we going?” Einuli asked.

“Um, you know what. I’ll take you to see where Pinkie lives first… we’ll avoid the town square for… a bit, until you at least have some… general shield.”

“Why? Are ponies going to try to shoot me, or something?”

“No… most ponies wouldn’t have bows of any kind.”

Einuli paused for a moment, “Right… Low tech planet… I uuh, forgot about that.” He laughed quietly.

“Low t-” She stopped herself as she realized, he had come from a spaceship… presumably from another section of the universe. “Right.”

“It’s not a bad thing.” Einuli said, “I’m used to most planets being more xenophobic. Less technologically advanced species tend to have that trait… it’s a little heartbreaking sometimes. I’m glad that most so far haven’t shown any real hatred towards me.” He smiled.

“Don’t worry, if anypony does treat you terribly, they’ll have even more ponies to answer to.” Starlight smiled, now taking his hand and leading him towards the first location she wanted to show him, Sugarcube Corner.






However… even the attentive unicorn didn’t notice one pony watching them from a nearby cloud. One pony nearly every other pony in Ponyville knew… (How many times can I use pony in a single sentence?)

And the pony’s mind was absolutely alight with ideas, a new creature? Talks of technology? Did Twilight bring a science fiction race to life? The pegasus was determined to find out… any… way… she could.
> Chapter 12: Friends (They Just Keep Coming!)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starlight led Einuli over to a booth, sitting down on the opposite side. Mrs Cake was quick to approach smiling widely as she got to the table, “Hello, Starlig-”

Pinkie appeared literally out of no-where, seeming to just jump out of the table itself. Einuli in both a fit of panic and shock squawked loudly and managed to activate the teleportation function on his little VR wrist computer. Blinking a good thirty feet to cover- that being another empty booth.

“HI!” The bubbly pink mare said before realizing she had scared Einuli.

“Gods Pinkie! You can’t do that!” Both Starlight and Mrs Cake said simultaneously.

“Sorry… I just got excited when I saw you two coming.” Pinkie apologized.

Einuli slowly peeked out from his safe cover, a strange looking weapon (they couldn’t really identify it as a gun) in his hands as if he was prepared for a fight. But after a few moments of his ears strangely twitching and swiveling, the weapon vanished entirely and he slowly crawled out from under the booth.

Pinkie was quick to approach Einuli, “I’m really sorry for scaring you.” She apologized directly to him. Einuli was quiet for a few moments before he smiled a little.

“I-it’s fine.” He assured. “I just…”

“Don’t ask her how, if you’re mind’s rooted in science she’ll rip everything you knew apart.” Starlight said quickly. She glanced to Pinkie, “Since you’re here, why don’t you join us?”

“I’d love to!” Pinkie nodded, sitting beside Einuli as he sat back down in the booth with Starlight. The unicorn shook her head and smiled a little more.

“So… um, barring any other surprises, what can I get for you three?” Mrs Cake asked.

“Um, I really don’t know what you have.” Einuli said.

“I can help with that!” Pinkie said quickly. “Listen up, cause I’m only gonna explain this to you once!” Einuli nodded and focused his attention on Pinkie, the bubbly earth pony quickly began to explain in ardous detail, everything that was on the menu at Sugarcube Corner.

Though, just across from them the mysterious pegasus who had spotted Einuli outside was watching them. “Alright… you just need to get him alone, that way you can make off with him and find out what he’s doi… Wait, is it even male? You know what… I’ll find that out when I get to questioning i-it on why it’s on our planet…” The pegasus mumbled to herself.

“Find out what, Derpy?” Mrs Cake asked as she approached the table. The usually happy and bright mailmare jumped.

“N-nothing!” Derpy said quickly.

Mrs Cake laughed, “Alright, can I take your order then? Or will that be nothing too.” She giggled.

“I’ll take a blueberry muffin please.” Derpy said.

“Alright! I’ll have some made fresh for you!” Mrs Cake walked back to the kitchen with the grey pegasus’ order.

Derpy went back to ‘secretly’ watching Einuli. Her mind alight with all the questions she was going to ask him.

“And then we have various selections of soda, and milkshakes.” Pinkie finished, handing him the menu with those choices on it.

“Alright.” Einuli nodded, he looked over the menu.

“How… could you even…”

“I have four separate auditory canals. Each one can hear individual sounds. My brain can also make them each out. It’s a lot more useful with my own species, as my pack and I…” Einuli trailed off for several seconds, visibly seizing up at those words. He shook his head trying to clear away the negative emotions welling up deep inside him. “W-we could keep up conversations with each other while listening to someone else.”

While Pinkie was quick to brush it off with a hug, Starlight took heavy note of the way he reacted when he spoke about his ‘pack’. She was drawn to curiosity now, did something devastating happen to him, did he lose them in some horrific way? Now wasn’t the time to ask those types of questions, but she’d definitely ask later… if only to help him through any guilt he was feeling through surviving whatever happened.

“That’s a wonderful trait to have around here. Especially around Pinkie.” Starlight smiled.

Pinkie was silent, just squeezing the fluffy raptor close, though Einuli seemed to calm down quickly. “There we go…” Pinkie smiled, nuzzling the top of his head.

“S-sorry… just…” He shivered, “Still all so fresh…”

“If… it’s not going to hurt mo-”

“Eight years now… B-based off what I can deduce is your time.” Einuli said. “I’d have been… Eighteen I guess? It did really matter how old I was though… they were all family for me…”

“Hey, don’t worry about telling us now.” Starlight assured, “Just know, if you ever want to talk, me, Pinkie, or really any of the girls are here for you to talk to.”

Derpy had been curious before, but now the whole ‘red-alert’ of him being an alien had faded. She found herself to be an amazing judge of character (or so she’d been told), and there was nothing hinting that this creature was going to harm anypony. Though, she did really take interest in how colorful and energetic the weapon he had summoned was. It brought her back to her favorite sci-fi shows.

“Huh… did Twilight bring some sort of book to life, is that even possible?” Derpy mused quietly, scratching her chin. Now, in all honesty the only reason she hadn’t been spotted for constantly watching Einuli and Starlight was because EVERYPONY was staring at them. None had ever seen anything like this before, or if the group had been outside, Spike showing Suzy around.

“What… actually brought you here?” Starlight asked.

“My FTL Dr-”

“Twilight magically took out the engine on his ship with a spell she used, she doesn’t even know how she caused it!” Pinkie blurted out.

“No… I Just think my chaos inhibitor broke down and the onboard computers shut it down to prevent any overheating.” Einuli shook his head. “It’d be highly, highly improbable something on this planet effec-”

“You’re dealing with magic here.” Starlight chuckled.

Einuli paused for a moment. “Right. I understand that, but…”

“And alicorns are basically akin to gods in terms of power…”

Einuli let out a long sight, “Right. I STILL doubt that it would have penetrated an energy based shield. It’s not like it’s easy to ‘accidently’ knock out an FTL Drive.”

“Oooh, I wanted to ask something, you made a comment about how fast it was to Dash… But, shouldn’t you theoretically be going faster than light? It seemed really slow when you explained it all…” Pinkie began.

“Right. About that. I have a much older model… at least in terms for my race. It’s fuel efficient, hard to track, and low energy, allowing me to actually use the shipboard generator for other things.” He explained, “Shielding, ship docking, mass teleportation…” He tapped his chin for a moment, “More efficient food cooling, differing climates onboard the ship if I choose to… Usually around ‘Christmas’ time for Suzy I turn the ship into something similar to what I’ve been told my species home planet looks like… she just said it looked like winter in Maine.” He shrugged. “I can also flood areas of the biodome to create faux-beaches with their own UV ‘sun’ to allow for just nice weather… I wanted it to be enjoyable to be in it, instead of just… metal and electronics. Peace, quiet, and relaxation help healing and recovering from different things.”

Pinkie seemed to have lost interest for the moment, “Boooring.” She yawned. “I’m gonna go get our food!” She hopped up, only for the grey pegasus who had been watching and listening from just a table over to take her spot.

“What else can it do?” Derpy asked quickly.

“You HAVE to have some sort of medical technology on there! With ENOUGH power to do all that, imagine… t-that’d solv…”

“Sadly… no it takes a specific material to power the generator.” Einuli shook his head, cutting Starlight off.

“What would it take?”

“Red matter… black matter… a-a-”

“ Erchius . It’s… hard to find but it does last for centuries if it isn’t over used. To use my generator to power an entire city…. Well, with just one, it’d be drained in a few years.” Einuli explained. “You’d have to ask the Shiatha twins about that sort of stuff, they’re the engineers. All that I know about things like that, they taught me.”

“Okay… now I really… really want to see your ship.” Starlight said.

“I’d love to see it! It’d be amazing to see something like that for real!” Derpy nodded.

Einuli was taken slightly by surprise, “A-alright!” He tapped something on his wrist and the three of them were surrounded by light. But just before they teleported out a pink blur SLAMMED into Einuli, teleporting up to the ship with them.
> Chapter 13: More Science!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the other two were teleported directly onto the pad, they found out momentum did carry over as Einuli was body slammed into the wall. Starlight and Derpy expected to hear a crack as he collided with the metal, but all Einuli did was grunt, only seeming slightly inconvenienced by slamming against a wall with the force of a train.

“Eeeeee! I can’t believe we’re actually here!” Pinkie bounced up, smiling wider than ever before. She bounced up from Einuli, managing to haul him up.

“How…” Einuli mumbled.

“Don’t question what she does.” Starlight said.

“Twilight said I hurt her brain, I dunno why though.” Pinkie shrugged.

“J…” Einuli shook his head after a moment's pause. “Alright… I’ll just… learn to not question things.” He sighed.

“It’s a bit hard on all of us.” Starlight assured, “Now, why don’t you show us around?”

“Wait… how big is your ship?” Derpy asked, looking around the metal room. “Is it a battleship, a dreadnought, a… a…”

“It’s a biodome actually. About the size- at least from my drone scans- of the first city I visited.” Einuli explained.

“A… biodome?” Derpy muttered, “Woah…”

“Y-you mean Canterlot? And…”

“I live here with the crew of Avenged. There’s my Treehouse up currently, since they’re all literally making this a mobile HQ for the ship and any armaments they need, we’re currently designing a barracks and other useful structures. Though, I intend to keep the Armory, and other important structures underground.” He tapped his foot against the metal floor. “Just to save room, and allow for food production. Namely in farms and orchards… it lets us all keep a more varied diet than some sort of ‘nutrient paste’.” He lead them out into the main area of the aboveground portion of the ship.

“Wait… y-you can grow food here? How i-” Derpy cut herself off as she saw how huge the ship itself was. She noticed quickly the artificial ‘sun’ in the dome. The space outside was completely blocked off.

“This is amazing…” Starlight mumbled, nearly gawking at the tech on display. “You said you can change the seasons here?”

“Yep. I do it on a whim. Just depending on what I want to grow.” Einuli shrugged. “Right now I’m growing summer crops. The soil is enhanced to allow for rapid growth and production without sacrificing quality. But it has to be ‘refreshed’ after around thirty solar cycles. Which would pertain to about a month in terms of your days. Though thanks to Shehal- the genetically engineered fungal species I made, I can focus on other things as he keeps the soil filled with nutrients. Weeds still grow like well… weeds. I wanted it to keep as close to being real as possible… plus it allows Shehal to eat.”

“Wow… I’m sure that Applejack would love to hear about that!” Pinkie said, “You should take her on a tour of your farms some time!”

“That’d actually be a great idea!” Starlight nodded.

Derpy was just wide-eyed as she looked around, not even really paying attention.

“So, what else would you like to see?” Einuli asked.

“Why don’t you show us your h-” Starlight was cut off as a bird-like creature (more bird-like than Einuli looked at least), came up and slapped him across the back of the head. Taking a look at him he looked to be in what could best be described as well… actually something technically advanced, looking incredibly like an engineer. Though outside of the suit they could see he looked somewhat like a parrot, with blue plumage around his eyes and red plumage on his face.

He spoke in a language none of the ponies understood, Einuli replying in kind. Einuli returned the smack, causing the bird to squawk and cross his arms.

“You CAN speak in english. That’s what their race speaks, so as guests it’s only right they feel welcome here.” Einuli stated.

“Fine.” The bird stated. “Well, idiot. You somehow busted a huge fucking hole in the side of the FTL drive. It’ll be a lengthy repair.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I was attempting to make a jump, and when it ended the drive just EXPLODED. I couldn’t help it.” Einuli retorted.

The bird paused for a moment. “Alright.” He sighed, shaking his head.

“Are you done accusing me of things?” Einuli asked.

“Yes. I am.”

“Good, you were honestly starting to anger me.” Einuli turned back to the three mares who were just listening to the near fight.

“And who would these three be?” The bird chirped.

“Chotl! What the hell are you doing?” Another bird, this one looking dirtier and covered in grime (though it was actually oil), from what they could see of his actual plumage his was green and orange instead of the other’s blue and red walked out from the teleporter room.

“Trying to exp-”

Einuli got a sly grin, the three mares instantly recognized what was going to happen.

“You assaulted Einuli again, didn’t you? And in front of a new species nonetheless! What the hell is wrong with you?” The second bird walked up to Chotl and slapped him hard across the face.

Chotl returned the slap and nearly punched the other bird.

Einuli chuckled quietly, “These are the Shiatha twins, Chotl…” He motioned to the one the mares met first. He pointed to the second one, “And he’s Oloxoc. They’re the onboard engineers for Avenged and now by virtue the… Well, I don’t really have a name for this ship… I just call it the Biodome. Since that’s what it is.” He shrugged.

“Well… you should really change that little issue.” Starlight chuckled, “Are they usually like this?”

“Eh, yeah. Most of the time at least. Catch them on a good day and they’ll be really friendly.” Einuli said. “Now, let’s just leave them to sort themselves out. I’ll show you my treehouse!” He said, motioning the three mares to follow him. He took them up the stairway leading to the top of the main exterior platform on the treehouse.

“Woah… this is literally…” Starlight muttered, taking quick notice to how well mixed the natural (the tree itself) and the unnatural (the various technological things on the tree) were. It was unlike anything she had seen before. Everything on this ship was completely new to her, and it just kept getting more and more amazing!

“Wh-what metal even is this?” Derpy asked, just trying to sate her curiosity.

“It’s made of titanium!” Pinkie responded, smiling widely.

“Yes! And this tree itself is a genetic modification of an oak tree. It’s much sturdier and the leaves don’t fall off, even in the coldest weather.” Einuli nodded, “It’s designed to be more homely on the inside as I do usually sleep and live in it when I’m not exploring.” He walked to the door which slid open for him. “Why don’t you three explore a bit? If you need anything or have any questions I’ll be around to answer them.” He offered.

“That’d be gr-” Derpy was cut off as Pinkie darted deeper inside, content to fully explore his home. “Great.” She laughed before flying off and joining her.

“Actually, I’d like it if you’d show me around, that way I can know more about everything as it comes up.” Starlight suggested.

Einuli smiled widely at that, “Alright! Why don’t I begin with what I know intimately?” He asked, “Right this way.” He lead her to another teleporter, taking both of them instantly to the infirmary. She noticed how sterile and clean it actually was, with a few beds laid out- all unused, and some things she could recognize (at least partially) from Ponyville’s hospital. “Now, most things like basic infections and illnesses work themselves out due to the nano-tech most of the Avenged’s crew has, so the infirmary is used for major things only. Like say broken bones, gunshot wounds, laser burns, serious concussions, energy burns, sword and knife wounds, augmentations, and other major medical things. But, I still do need to check up on them incase there’s something internally wrong with them.”

“So, do you use X-rays and CT scans?” Starlight asked.

“No, those are incredibly outdated and slow to use.” Einuli shook his head, “I use this.” He walked over to a machine Starlight didn’t recognize. “It scans all internal organs and does the work that an X-ray, CT Scan, and any other type of examination procedure would do in a much shorter time. It’s useful as it doesn’t need contrast or any special prerequisites before use. And there’s no risk of cancer from it due to radiation.” He explained, he motioned for her to sit in the chair inside of the machine.

“Does… it hurt?” She asked.

“It’s completely painless.” Einuli said.

Starlight stepped inside and sat down.

“Alright, this will only take a minute.” Einuli smiled at her, pushing a few buttons on a nearby keyboard.

Starlight heard the whirring inside the machine before a few lasers kicked on. The machine fully scanned her body, and true to his word it was completely painless and it took only a single minute.

“Alright! You’re done, you can come look out here now.” He said. Starlight stood back up and walked out, she now saw the screen overtop of the keyboard Einuli was at, on it was very clearly displayed both a full brain and cranial scan, as well as something similar to an X-ray sheet, and a show of her organs. “From my best judgements, I’d say you’re completely healthy.” He joked.

Starlight smiled, “Thanks, doctor.” She laughed, now turning to a more serious note, “This is really cool! It’s amazing to think something like this could even exist…”

“It was made through a collaborative effort between some Apex rebel scientists and a few Hytoli scientists. It’s helped advance medical tech a lot, though it’s expensive to make and I only got this through salvaging an abandoned cruiser.” He said.

“Wow…” Starlight mumbled.

She looked back up at the screen and noticed some text she couldn’t even begin to decypher. “What’s that mean?”

“Oh, it’s something the Shipboard AI does automatically, it scans for possible augmentations that’d work well with your body, and have an incredibly low chance of rejection.” He said, “Not something you need to worry about… the healing process for any augmentations is a few days, and it’s an incredibly painful process during some stages…” He let out a sigh.

“Mmm, I’ll… keep that in mind.” Starlight said, “But for now… I think I’ll just stay away from anything like that.”

“That’s entirely your choice.” Einuli said, turning back to face her. “So, why don’t we go… um, find the other two before…”


“They managed to breach the dome?” Starlight joked.

“Yeah.” Einuli laughed.

“Sounds like a great plan.” Starlight nodded, the two leaving the infirmary for the time being in search of Pinkie and Derpy.
> Chapter 14: Memories
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several hours later:

The four returned from Einuli’s ship, the little avali smiling happily as Twilight greeted them. She couldn’t have been happier at the outcome, not only did he make Starlight as a friend, but Derpy joining them as well? That was a great thing, he definitely wouldn’t feel alone down here.

“Did you all have fun?” Twilight asked.

“It was a true learning experience…” Starlight sighed, smiling at Twilight.

“It was amazing! He had so, so much stuff on his ship!” Derpy nodded.

“He didn’t let me in the engine room…”

“You wanted to jam a cupcake into the reactor! How could I let you near anything else that important?” Einuli retorted.

“Pinkie… w-why exactly did you want to jam a cupcake into a reactor?” Twilight asked.

“She thought it’d give it a sugar high, making it…”

“Work faster!” Pinkie nodded.

“It’s a machine! Sugar does nothing to it!” Einuli groaned. “You would have just made a mess!”

“You don’t know until you try!” Pinkie giggled, now bouncing off.

“I’ll hopefully see you again soon!” Derpy waved at Einuli leaving the castle as well.

Einuli and Starlight both just rubbed their temples.

“Gods… she was absolutely insane… and I thought she was already bad down here.” Starlight shook her head.

“I’m going to be cleaning glitter out of everything for years to come, aren’t I?” Einuli grumbled.

“Don’t worry, I’ll come up to help get rid of any messes she made… I’ve grown… savy to her antics. And thankfully it’s easy to get rid of all the glitter.” Twilight assured. “And, Einuli?”

“Yeah?” He looked up at her.

“Shortly after you two left, Dash came by. She wanted to see you.” Twilight said.

“My, he goes from one of the dynamic duo to the other.” Starlight laughed.

Twilight grinned and shook her head, “She’s waiting at her house, it shouldn’t be too hard to find it.” She said.

“It shouldn’t be too hard to find her.” Starlight said, “Just… look for a rainbow trail in the sky and you’ll find her.” She walked to Twilight, “Twi, can we talk about something?” She asked, glancing back to Einuli and giving him a small smile.

“Sure.” Twilight nodded, “Have fun Einuli.” She waved as the two mares left the raptor alone.

Einuli left after a few moments, walking back out into Ponyville. Though this time he was alone, and he felt that now.

It was later in the day now, and not many ponies were actually out at the moment, but enough of those who were watched Einuli with visible distrust.

Einuli was truly distraught, seeming visibly agitated and fearful now. He’d been alone for long periods of time before but this… this wasn’t just loneliness, he felt unwelcome here.

He tried to ignore the looks and quiet comments made at his expense as he looked skyward for a rainbow trail or any sign of Rainbow Dash. He was startled as the headstrong cyan pegasus swooped down and landed right in front of him, though she wasn’t facing him.

Rainbow Dash was glaring at each and every pony who was looking at Einuli. “Got something to say about my friend?” She said loudly.

Most ponies backed away from her challenge. The rest just instantly snapped their heads down, not to keen on angering her.

“That’s what I thought!” Dash grinned, turning to Einuli, “Hey.” She greeted.

“Hi.” Einuli said back, looking up at her.

“You’ve kept me waiting a long time, but, I can’t fault you. Must have been really fun being with Starlight, Pinkie, and Derpy.” She laughed, “Come on, let's walk and talk for a bit.”

“Alright.” Einuli followed beside her.

“So, what cool things have you done?” Dash asked, glancing to him. “Take down any galactic overlords?”

Einuli smiled, “Well, I’ve fought my fair share of battles. Space pirates… penal colonies. Avain’s hellbent on killing me… Florans, monsters… different things… I can tell you about one of the better battles I fought in.” He offered.

“I’d love to hear it.” Dash grinned.

“Well, this one took place on a penal colony…”

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several minutes later, just under Dash’s house:

Dash was listening to every detail, honestly enthralled.

“Wait… so there was an ancient temple complex under the prison?” Dash inquired.

“Yeah! It was absolutely amazing! We found an ancient sword in there, after it got pulled out of the pedestal the temple began to flood, since we were so deep underground we couldn’t teleport out, so we had to get out through the same way we came in… and oooh boy, when the ancient statues awoke were they pissed. There were lasers flying through the air, darts slamming into the wall, a flood of water coming up from the bottom of the cavern, and then angry giant statues attempting to crush us all… it was just an amazing experience. And to think, there’s more of those out there!” Einuli finished.

“Ooooh gods… you need to meet Daring Do, you two could really, really compare notes.” Dash gushed, now looking up at her house. “Hey, Einuli, are those wings just for show?” She asked, pointing to of course, his wings.

“No! I can fully fly.” Einuli huffed.

Dash just grinned widely, “Alright… alright.” She looked back down at him, “Think you can keep up?” Her wings spread out.

Einuli returned the grin, “Yeah, I think I can.” He said, taking off and flying a few feet off the ground.

“Great, wouldn’t want to be seen with somepony who thinks they’re slow.” She took off, shooting into the sky.

Einuli followed close behind her, though Dash kept back from her full speed, knowing full well he was all talk about his speed. The two ‘raced’ up to Dash’s house, tearing through the cloud floor which reformed behind them.

They landed side by side, smiling at each other. “Hey, not too bad.” She complimented, “For a newbie that is.” She joked, patting him on the back.

“Thanks!” He chirped.

“So, besides being a space adventurer, what else do you do?” She asked, now leading him to the couch so they could sit down.

“Um… medical stuff. Or just farm… before my friends decided to hole up permanently on my ship it was just… lonely up there.” Einuli closed his eyes and shivered.

“Wait… you didn’t have anypony else with you?” Dash asked curiously, scooting closer.

“Not… not for a long time.” Einuli shook his head.

“W-what happened to your other friends?” Dash asked.

“T-th-they were…” Einuli shook even more, now beginning to visibly cry. He seemed fully distraught.

Dash wrapped her wing around him, for anypony else it would have been a calming gesture, though Einuli curled up and hid his face completely.

Almost immediately after she heard sniffling and could feel him actively shaking. Dash hadn’t ever had something like this happen before, so in an act of further kindness, she pulled him up into her arms, wrapping both wings around him. Despite the warmth and comfort she offered, he only got more emotional. Now she heard soft and quick chirping coming from him, each sound was shaking and hurt her in ways she hadn’t felt before. She wanted to know what was wrong, she NEEDED to help him… and with his translator disabled, with him speaking a language she couldn’t understand… there was no way she could effectively help.

Dash tightened her grip on him, softly nuzzling the top of his head. In return he pressed tighter against her, trying hard to get as close as possible. The shaking and sobbing ball of fluff in her arms tugged hard at her heartstrings.

“Einuli.” Dash said, gently rubbing his head. “Hey… hey, calm down…” He only chirped in response, a quick and panicky pitch was scary for her. She wasn’t sure he had the will left to breathe. She just squeezed him, the quivering raptor soon stopped moving entirely. She was scared for a few moments, h-had he just… stopped? Was that even possible?

She immediately checked for any sign of breathing and found it within moments, he just seemed to have passed out. Dash closed her eyes and she lifted the surprisingly light creature up, carrying him swiftly up to her room so he could at least wake up somewhere more comfortable. Though, the moment she attempted to remove her wings he started to quake again. She laid down beside him, embracing him completely again. She’d wait as long as it took for him to wake up.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Several hours later:

Einuli awoke, and for a few moments he believed he was back with his pack. The feathers caressing his body reminded him so much of them that he pressed closer in, awaking Rainbow Dash.

“Hey…” Dash yawned, “Did you sleep well?” She asked.

He chirped quietly before he managed to switch his translator back on. “S-sorry… Yes. I-I did…” He said quietly.

“Good.” She smiled, nuzzling the raptor. “And, before you say anything, don’t worry about what happened. I’m here to help…”

Einuli curled up against her just silently resting there.

“I can’t really help you if I can’t understand what you’re saying all the time.” Dash said. “And that’s impossible to accomplish if you can speak a completely foreign language.”

“Sorry… i-if I get really stressed out my translator a-and other neural implants begin to turn off… I-it’s a glitch I can’t work out without removing them completely.” Einuli apologized.

“And that doesn’t help me understand you. If I can’t understand you all the time. I can’t really help when something is wrong, now can I?” Dash asked. “We need to change that, don’t we?”

Einuli was quiet.

“So, either you’re gonna fix that ‘translator’ of yours. Or you’re giving me one. I won’t stand not being able to talk to you all the time.” Dash stated.

Einuli remained quiet, lost deep in thought. “T-the augmentation process is painful… c-cripplingly so.” He began.

“I’ve gotten hurt for my friends before.” Dash said. “And I know I’ve been through worse.” She paused for a moment, “Besides you said you’re a doctor, right?”

“Yeah.” Einuli nodded.

“You’d take care of me during it, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course!”

“Then it’s settled. You’ll give me that translator! I trust you completely.” She squeezed him, causing his heart to literally flutter. He fully believed he was going to die in that moment, not out of shock, or injury, but just out of joy.

“O-okay! I’ll have to do a scan on your body, just to make sure you’re compatible… And um, it might bring up some other augmentations that I could perform… though those ones are entirely up to you.”

“We’ll see about those when we get to them.” Dash laughed, “For now, let’s just get those scans out of the way.”

“Actually… c-could we lay he for a bit longer? Y-your wings being around me… th-they remind me of home…” He mumbled.

Dash remained silent this time, just tightening her grip on him. The avali in her arms chirped happily and closed his eyes once again, this time both falling asleep in peace.
> Chapter 15: Loyalty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was the following day, Dash had decided it was for the best that she alert everypony to her decision.

To say the least, none of them fully understood what she was doing. Both Fluttershy and Applejack however knew right away, her decision was final. Nothing was going to change her mind on it.

Twilight and Starlight weren’t exactly keen on having their friend play guinea pig for augmentations. Though, Starlight realized Einuli hadn’t been given a choice in the matter.

Pinkie was silent on the matter, though anypony could tell she knew exactly why Dash had chosen to take on the augments.

“Why… just why would you go under something nopony has done before?” Twilight asked.

“You… didn’t see the way he acted with me. I… can’t even begin to explain it.” Dash began, “All of it after…”

“You wrapped your wings around him?” Starlight asked.

“Yeah…”


“But he didn’t act any specific way towards me when I did it.” Twilight said.

“Because he probably didn’t talk about his past with you. I… I won’t go into detail. It was… horrible to see him break down.” Dash said. “He just sort of shut down… he started chirping and crying. He curled up into a ball and just started shaking… I don’t know what happened to cause it. But I want to make sure that I can be there for him when he needs me to be.”

The others fell silent. Except for Rarity.

“Then do it.” Rarity stated.

Everypony looked at her.

“If you trust him enough to watch after you, to enter your body, and perform surgery on  your brain and who knows what else. Do it. I trust your judgement enough. And I doubt, highly, that he’d harm you.”  Rarity continued. “If you believe he was being utterly honest with you, then don’t hold back.”

“R-rarity…” Starlight muttered.

“Ah agree.” Applejack nodded. “Look, none of us really know him. But, from what ah’ve seen… he’s an honest creature. Hell, from mah experience with Suzy, Ah’d say they’re all honest. They don’t wanna cause us any trouble, and intend to clean up the mess they brought with em. Though, if they attack us, it won’t be just their problem anymore.” She said.

“I know Celestia’s already planning to detach several units to prepare for a battle.” Twilight sighed.

Dash was silent, looking between her two friends that supported her decision.

“H-how long will you be gone?” Fluttershy piped up.

“Einuli said it depends on how many augmentations I decide to take… and if my body doesn’t reject them.” Dash said.

“If your body rejects them?”

“I could die.” Dash said quietly.

“He won’t let you take what your body won’t accept.” Pinkie now spoke.

Everypony looked at her.

“He doesn’t really like over-augmentation, didn’t he tell you that Twilight?” Pinkie said.

“Sort of…”

“I’d think he’d know what a body can handle. I mean look at Suzy, she’s augmented too!” Pinkie stated. “If he’s willing to perform surgery on you… well I doubt he’d take that decision lightly.”

“He didn’t even want to… I had to convince him. He kept telling me how painful it’d be… how it’d be days before I’d be able to move again as my body adjusted to the translator…” Dash said.

“If you want to go through it, than do it. Don’t let anypony else tell you away. You’re doing it for all the right reasons. Sure, it might be painful, but something tells me he’ll do everything in his power to make you as comfortable as he can. He won’t put you in undue danger or stress.”

“I know that.” Dash said.

“The go for it!” Pinkie said. “He’s not violent, and with how much care he puts into his own machines and medical area, I doubt you’d be in better hands anywhere else.”

Dash sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. “I already decided I will.” She said.

Rarity, Twilight, and Starlight looked at each other for a few moments.

“Do what you think is best.” Twilight said.

“We’ll support you one hundred percent.” Rarity nodded.

“Yeah, like Pinkie, I don’t believe he’d actively hurt any of us.” Starlight nodded.

Dash smiled a little, now looking at all of her friends.

“Why don’t Ah go with yah, just to put some of our fears to ease, and that way if anythin goes wrong he won’t be able tah hide it?” Applejack offered.

“I doubt he’d hide anything… If something did happen… something tells me none of you would see him again…” Dash muttered, “Though, it’d be great if you came along AJ.” She gave a half hearted smile.

“Then let’s go! The sooner he starts, the sooner yah’ll be back, right?” AJ asked.

“Yeah! Come on, he’s waiting for me outside of town.” Dash said.

“Why outside of to-”

“You saw it too, didn’t you, Dash?” Starlight began.

“Yeah, until I got them to stop, I was sure somepony was going to do something incredibly stupid.” Dash nodded.

“I would have intervened had I seen anypony planning on doing anything like that.” Starlight said.

“I’ll… work on making sure he’s more welcome in town.” Twilight stated.

“So will I.” Pinkie nodded.

“Great! And if everything goes well… I doubt anypony will look on what I’m going through as ‘bad’. It’ll only be a good thing right?” Dash smiled. She looked to Applejack, “Let’s go meet him.” She lead her friend out, the two heading swiftly to where Dash was going to meet Einuli.

Einuli was pacing nervously, not too keen on harming his new friend, even if he had been lying to her on how painful it’d be. In truth, what he’d told Cadance about neurological augments being painful was true. So, part of him got really hopeful that Applejack coming along with her meant that she’d rethought her decision.

“Hey, Einuli! Applejack’s tagging along.” Dash smiled at him, his heart fluttered a little.

“T-that’s fine!” Einuli smiled back.

“So, why don’t you fill us both in on what’s going to happen?” Dash asked. “Well, at least Applejack.”

“Sure!” Einuli said, letting out a long sigh. “Um, first I’m going to run a few bodily scans, to make sure her brain’s capable of supporting the neurological changes the augment will cause. The scans may also open up any other augments your body could theoretically handle…” He closed his eyes for a few moments.

“And like I said… I’ll only take them if they’re necessary, or… honestly if they sound cool.” Dash chuckled.

Applejack shook her head. “Ah’m sure you will.”

Einuli went quiet for a moment, “Um Dash…” He began.

“What’s up?”

“I… I don’t want you to think any less of me for this… b-but I lied to you a bit… a-and by virtue Starlight as well…” Einuli continued quietly.

Dash raised an eyebrow, “How… so?”

“I really… really didn’t want you to take any augments… I only have them because they were necessary for survival while I was alone… So, I tried to dissuade you by saying how… painful they were to have added… I-it’s only really the translator that will be painful, that and… any neurological augments… and that’s only because they make all of your nerves incredibly sensitive for the first few hours after you regain consciousness.” He explained quietly, earning a smile from both Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “I’ve… seen other lose themselves and become… nearly machines from the amount of things they do to their body, and that thought scares me so much… I needed my enhanced muscles to really work for the first few months… until I got ahold of a mech to help with heavy lifting… and by virtue my bones needed  to be strong enough to support the extra stress… The translator was a necessity for when I found other species. They’re… so natural now… but at first I didn’t like having them, it made me feel less like… me.”

“Hey… Einuli.” Dash said, walking up to and kneeling down in front of the raptor.

Einuli looked at her.

“I don’t care that you lied to me about that. You know what that shows me?”

“W-what?”

“You care about my well-being. Even if you just met me. That’s something that shouldn’t be scoffed at.” Dash hugged him. “Just promise me one thing.”

“Anything!” He said quickly.

“Don’t lie to me about anything else, if I want to know it, you’ll tell me.” Dash pulled back.

“I swear, I won’t lie to you or anyone else again.” Einuli smiled slightly. Dash glanced to Applejack who was smiling even more at this point. “Good, now let's go up to your ship, and see how long this all will take.”

Einuli nodded and tapped something on the inside of his wrist, the three being teleported up to the ship.

This time however instead of the main room, they ended up in the med-bay. “Alright! Here we are… first I’ll run the scans and then we’ll take you to my tree-house so you can relax before the procedure.” Einuli said, taking Dash’s hand and guiding her to the same machine Starlight had used the day before. “Just sit back and relax.” He sat her down in the chair.

“Oookay.” Dash yawned, stretching out. Though she paused as she heard the whirring of the machine, “Uuuh, what’s it going to do?”

“Just relax, it won’t hurt at all.” Einuli assured just as the lasers kicked on and ran over her body. Dash was a bit curious, and Einuli speaking made her even more curious. “Huh… I didn’t notice this before with Starlight… but I’m seeing it now… at least halfway.”

“Seein what?” Applejack asked.

“I’d… Like to confirm my suspicion before I make any real judgments, but… It seems like your species has high similarities to humans.” He typed something on the console before him and a second scan popped up beside Rainbow Dash’s. “At least physiologically. You also, thankfully, share some similarities with avians. Though your wings work… so I can adjust the muscle density to be similar to mine… aaand… well… I’d still need to see scans from you, Applejack, and if I get luck, maybe Twilight will be willing to help? A complete set from all sub-species of Ponies would be amazing!” He seemed to get even happier now.

“So… what exactly does the mumbo jumbo mean?”

“Well, unless you have some rare brain disease that hasn’t cropped up until now… there shouldn’t- theoretically- be any problems with any augmentations.” Einuli explained, pulling Dash up and motioning for Applejack to sit down.

Applejack sat down in the same spot Dash did and after a moment he completed a scan of her too.

Einuli only got even happier. “Yes! Just one last one to complete! Though… maybe more of a sample size would help…”

“Well I’m sure you can convince Fluttershy to help you with a scan of pegasi, or even Derpy.” Dash said.

“Yah could convince Rarity with no issues.” Applejack added.

“Well… I’d need at least four separate scans of each species… just to make sure that my hunch is correct.” Einuli said.

“Well, Twilight, Luna, Celestia, Cadance, and now Flurry Heart are the only Alicorns… so it shouldn’t be too hard to get their scans.” Dash said. “Hell, if you say anything sciency to Twilight she’d be all over it!”

“And as fer Earthponies… Ah could try to get mah brother to give you one…”

“Right… you’d need both sexes wouldn’t you?” Dash asked. “I can ask Soarin’ and another Wonderbolt to let you scan them.”

“I already have Shining’s scans thanks to him running a few simulations… so I’d just need one more male unicorn.” Einuli said, pulling up Applejack’s scan and comparing it to the scan he had of Suzy. “Hm… these muscle structures are similar… just it appears Ponies have a greater mass without any side-effects related to weight-lifting and steroids… it’s just natural.” He tapped his chin, “Interesting…”

“So… what does that mean?” Dash asked.

“Well… It opens up a few possibilities.” Einuli began, “Now, it’s up to you… and please, please don’t let me influence your decision, it’s… your body. So you have the say in it.”

Rainbow Dash remained silent, leaning up against the machine as she looked at him.

“I could reinforce your bones, make them much more durable and… well unless you slammed into the ground at ten times the speed of sound… you wouldn’t even crack a bone. By virtue I’d also make your organs more durable…” He explained. “Then, there’s also the option to enhance your muscles, you’d be able to fly faster, and for much longer periods of time at high speeds. With it, your muscles would use less energy to stretch, meaning you’d have more stamina in general.”

“But?”

“It’d add a day to your recovery time at the very least… a day and a half at most.” Einuli said.

“Oh joy, yer gonna maker her stronger and faster? Do yah even know who yer talkin to?” AJ joked.

“I… actually have a pretty good idea…” Einuli mumbled, twitching slightly as a painful memory reared its’ ugly head. He shook the thought from his mind.

“Alright. I’ll do it. If you can do this to me… well, it’d look good on you, plus… I can’t really pass up the opportunity to be even faster, now can I?” Dash laughed, approaching him and putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Alright… um, and Applejack, the option’s out there for you too. It wouldn’t be difficult to give you stronger bones and muscles. But… if you do want to take that chance, it’ll be only after Dash is better. I… want to focus my attention on one per… pony at a time.” Einuli said.

“Ah’ll… think about it. Ah want ta see how well Dash adjusts before Ah make any decisions in that regard.” AJ smiled, “But thank yah fer the offer.”

Einuli smiled back, “Both of you come with me then. I’ll take you to my house, and get Applejack and I something to eat.” He lead them back to the teleporter.

“Why only you two?” Dash grumbled.

“You can’t eat for twelve hours before the procedure.” Einuli said. “That’d end up horribly if your body reflexively threw up while I’m in you... it could go sceptic and kill you.” He stated firmly. “You won’t eat for twelve hours. Understand? If you do eat at all, it’ll be ANOTHER twelve hours before I start. So how long this takes is up to you.”

Dash sighed, “Fine. I… won’t eat for twelve hours.”

“Good! When you wake up after the procedure, I’ll get you whatever you want to eat.” Einuli promised.

“You’d better.” Dash winked at him, the three of them then being teleported to his tree-house.
> Chapter 16: Truth
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twelve hours later:

Due to the nature of her procedure, Dash had to go a full twelve hours without food. It was… difficult for her to say the least.

Applejack found it funny that she was actually listening to a doctor for once, but she refrained from torturing Dash. As much as she wanted to eat in front of her, Einuli was adamant  on Dash being in a separate room while they ate. But now AJ had been sitting with Dash, keeping her company while Einuli readied everything for her surgery.

“Alright! You should be clear now.” Einuli finally re-entered the room the two had been staying in- his room.

“Great! How long should the surgery take… I heard I have to be concious during bra-” Dash nearly swatted his hand away as he injected something into her neck. “Hey! W-aaarnn…” She immediately fell tired. “What… diiii… id… yy-ou…”

“Don’t worry…” Einuli said gently guiding her to lay back. “Just sleep…” He lightly nuzzled her, climbing up on the bed to curl up against her as he tried to guide her into sleep.

“Y… yeah… Sl… sleeeep…” Dash’s eyes fluttered shut as she passed out completely.

“E-Einuli, what did yah put in her?” Applejack asked quietly.

“It’s a high grade anesthetic, it’ll shut down all her nerve endings until the counter agent is injected. It has about- based off your solar schedule at least- a 36 hour lifespan before she re-awakens.” Einuli explained. “The surgery won’t take twelve hours, more along the lines of four or five.” He slowly picked Dash up, managing to actually carry her with little effort. Applejack followed close behind him.

“Actually, could you wait here? I’ll come get you the moment I’m done.” Einuli said.

Applejack was quiet for a moment, “Alright… just…”

“If anything happens, I’ll let you know right away. It’d just be less stressful if someone else wasn’t breathing down my back while I work… I’m already doing a great job of stressing myself out.” He tried to joke.

“Just take care of her…”

“I will. I won’t lose another friend…” Einuli carried Dash’s unconscious body to the teleporter.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Six hours later:

Before Einuli went to Applejack after the operation he had cleaned both himself and Dash off, bandaging her up and making sure she’d be left with no scars. The nanites now in her body would slowly work on making sure that she healed up internally. He had put her down in one of the infirmary beds to rest, a steady IV drip mixing both more nanites and the counter agent into her bloodstream. She’d be sensitive when she woke up in thirty hours, but she wouldn’t be in pain.

He re-entered his tree-house, finding Applejack passed out on the couch. He sighed quietly and picked her up, gently carrying her to his bed where he tucked her in. He couldn’t even attempt to sleep, having a constant watch on Dash’s vitals to make sure nothing happened.

It was several minutes before Applejack awoke, now wondering how she’d ended up in Einuli’s bed. Though she was quick to think he just carried her there after he found her asleep.

She got up and walked out into the main room, finding Einuli pacing back and forth.

“How’d it go?” Applejack asked.

Einuli wasn’t startled in the slightest, having heard her get up. “Wonderfully! There weren’t any complications, and her body appears to be accepting all of the augments. Just… keeping a constant vigil on her vitals.” He said, turning to her.

“Would yah like a bit of company?” AJ asked.

“I’d love some.” He nodded. She came out and sat down on the couch again, Einuli joining her within moments.

“Ah noticed somethin, the way yah treated Dash right before she went under… that wasn’t just friendly.” AJ commented. “Ah don’t think any doctor in Equestria would get away with nuzzlin a patient as they passed out.”

Einuli glanced down.

“And then, there was yah breakin down in her wings when yah were with her… yes, she did tell us all about that when she said she was takin the translator.” She added.

He visibly cringed.

“Ah ain’t accusin you of anythin, or even sayin you had bad intentions for her… it’s just… she brings something up in yah, don’t she?”

“Memories.” Einuli said quietly. “Of my pack… of… my family…” AJ wrapped her arm around him.

“I’d… be lying if I said they didn’t consume almost all of my thoughts… They were everything to me… my family, my life… I had even… well fallen in love with one of them. At least, looking back now I can say that.” He sighed. “It’s just… Dash… e-everything about her… racing me… swooping down to scare off all those ponies… just being so friendly and nonchalant with me…” He shivered, nearly shaking the couch in the process. “S… she really reminded me of one of my closest pack mates… a-and when she put her wing around me… feeling her feathers… I just broke down. I couldn’t think… I couldn’t breathe… I felt like I-I was home again… Like I wasn’t all alone out here.” He mumbled. “A-and hearing her… n-nearly demand to have me augment her… j-just so she could understand me all the time, th-that made the pain so much worse…” He was starting to cry again. “I t-tried to save h-” His words cut off and it turned to chirping as he started to violently shake.

Applejack knew instantly what had caused Dash to make her choice. Seeing this… she’d never seen any living thing in so much emotional pain. It made her wonder just how… strong, he truly was. To survive like this… to struggle everyday with memories that haunted him.

She was snapped back to him when he said something she could understand, “I couldn’t save her! I-I TRIED!” He was nearly wailing now. “WHY… WHY WAS I THE ONLY ONE TO SURVIVE?” He seemed to physically be in pain, as though he screeching and wailing was hurting him in some way.

Applejack did the only sensible thing and pulled him in close, burying his face in her shoulder. His wailing became much quieter, and now her shoulder was steadily being soaked. His screeches had died down after several minutes, he was just left shaking.

“Einuli?” AJ asked.

“Y… yeah?” He said weakly.

“If it hurts that badly to continue…”

Einuli pulled back and shook his head, “No… no… I… I need to tell someone…”

AJ paused, “Then wait ta tell me until Dash is awake, alright? She deserves ta hear it too.”

“Yeah… She does.” Einuli nodded, pressing back up against AJ for a few moments.

“How long until she’s guaranteed to be stable?” AJ asked.

“A good two or three hours.” Einuli said.

“Then let's wait together, shall we?” Applejack asked.

“Thank you.” Einuli smiled.
> Chapter 17: Feelings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day:

Both Einuli and Applejack were patiently awaiting Rainbow Dash’s return to consciousness. Thankfully they had arrived mere minutes before she woke up, and they didn’t have to wait long for their friend to come back to them.

“Uuh…” Dash groaned groggily.

“Good mornin.” Applejack was the first to greet her as Einuli was making sure everything was alright internally.

“How long was I out, and… did everything…” Dash began.

“Everything went smoothly. Just don’t attempt to move, if you fall it might hurt a lot more than usually.” Einuli said, “And a little under thirty six hours.”

“Well, that’s great to hear.” Dash laughed quietly. “Nnnn…” She attempted to move her arm.

“You’ll need a few minutes to an hour in order to move fully again, so just relax.” Einuli said, guiding her arm back down. He was silent and Dash could tell there was something on both her friends minds. “What’s up?”

“I have something I need to tell you.” Einuli said.

“Well, I’m definitely not going anywhere. And, not like I would even if I could.” Dash laughed, “So shoot.”

“Alright… it’s… hard on me to even think about this… let alone talk about it.” He said quietly.

“Then you don’t…”

“I need to tell someone.” He stated firmly, “Regardless… of how it makes me feel. I need to get it out.” He pulled a chair up and sat down, AJ sitting down on the bed beside Dash. “It’s been… I don’t even know how long anymore… since I was left as the sole survivor of my pack.” He let out a long shaking breath. “I was a lot younger than I am now… but, I guess that would be obvious. I was hatched and raised with them… there were twelve of us in total… We were less friends, and more family. We did everything together, things that most other species wouldn’t ever come close to understanding… that was life, and… it made me honestly happy. Though for most… I was a bit of a ‘freak’ compared to other Avali… I’m a full foot larger than I’m supposed to be… I don’t breathe methane, and, despite being an Avali… I felt unwelcome constantly around anyone outside of my pack.”

“Wait… you’re a foot larger than any other members of your species? I thought you were just short.” Dash laughed.

“Most of them are only about three feet tall.” Einuli nodded. “But, I’m four and a half feet tall.”

“Wow.” Applejack commented.

“Like I said, we were so close… that even if one of us died, it hurt as all so much. We’d be shut down for days afterwards, barely eating or sleeping… it was like… losing a piece of yourself.” Einuli explained with a shiver. “So… when those FUCKING pirates…” For once they heard him get angry, and him baring his teeth, his feathers puffing out, and the growl in his voice honestly scared them.

“Attacked us… they slaughtered everything on the colony… I was… o-out trying to collect my thoughts… trying to just get level-headed… I… I came back to find everyone dead, e-except for one of my closest friends. S-she was struggling to stay alive…” He shivered violently. “They had… infected her with some sort of virus… or something. I know what it is now… but then, I just thought I could save her… keep her alive…” He closed his eyes. “I… I managed to get her to the colony’s ancient starship… w-what we’re on now. I tried to nurse Sithali back to health… and I thought it was working! I forced it all back into remission and she just… just rested…” He muttered quietly. “The mutagen in her body was working, despite not showing any signs… she somehow knew… a-and it was a week and a half after we left the dead colony... it manifested… I was forced awake as I heard her screaming so… so loudly, i-it’s painful to think about even now… I rushed into the room she was in, vines and stems were sprouting from her stomach and legs, slowly beginning to consume her… I m-managed to halt it for a few minutes, culling her pain…” His shaking stopped entirely, and they didn’t know if him crying and shaking worried them more than this utter… silence. He just seemed dead in remembering these moments.

“E… Einuli?” Dash spoke uncertainly.

“The infection was too far along for me to do anything.” Einuli said, for once he did sound dead, absolutely emotionless. “All I could do was put her down. End her suffering.”

Dash and Applejack were silent.

“Before I… killed her… She spoke one final thing to me… asking me to never let this happen again.”

“And… I won’t let it happen again. To anyone. I don’t care who or what they are, what they’ve done. The only group that I believe deserves to die are those disgusting creatures, threatening your planet right now. And I’ll do anything in my power to destroy them.”

“Anything.”
> Chapter 18: Feelings New
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Einuli had left the room, clearly need a little bit of time alone. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were left in dubious silence.

It was clear he trusted Rainbow Dash for little more than her being truly friendly and protective over him, and it was also clear that he wanted to protect her. Yet, here she was after the surgery she all but forced him into performing…

Now, she felt worse than she did right after waking up. Something deep down told her, she made him break his promise to his old pack mate, but… yet why did it feel like he was opening up more?

“I…” Dash could barely speak, everything felt so wrong now and she didn’t know how to make it better.

“Is there anything we can say to him?” Applejack muttered.

“Concerned. No. It’s best that he’s left alone, at least for a little while.” A robotic voice spoke, the owner walking into the room.

“W… who are you?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Happy. I am Nightbloom. It is nice to meet you.” It greeted. “I am what you’d call ‘male’. Though I am no such thing biologically. I am a Glitch.”

“It’s… nice to meet you Nightbloom.” Applejack said, glancing to Rainbow Dash.

“Indifferent. I’m here to make sure the machines are operating at peak efficiency. You both can just ignore me.” He walked past the two, going deeper into the medical wing.

“That… was weird.” Applejack laughed uncertainly.

“Hey… Applejack, could you… go tell everypony I’m alright?” Dash asked.

“Huh, sure!” She nodded, “Did yah want anything before I left?”

“No, no I’m fine.” Dash smiled slightly.

“Well… Ah’ll… uuuh, see you later then?” Applejack stood up, slowly walking towards where she knew the teleporter to be.

Dash glanced down to her arm, noticing what she assumed was a heart rate sensor. She knew of one instant way to get Einuli’s attention, and she was willing to go there. He couldn’t be alone, not now. “Well… here it goes.” She pulled it off. Nothing happened. “Gods damn it…” She groaned.

“Curious. Is something wrong?” Nightbloom showed back up.

“Where’s the heart rate sensor?” Dash asked.

“Uncertain. On the bed. Why?”

“Thanks, I just wanted to know.” Dash said.

“Sarcastic. Sure.” Nightbloom said, walking away once more.

“Ass.” Dash scoffed, “Well… here I go.” She slowly attempted to get off the bed, the moment she sat up though, everything went off at once. Within seconds Einuli was down there, rushing in and looking like he had just seen a ghost.

“DASH!” He nearly shouted, looking like he was about to die from the scare.

“I’m fiiiiiine.” Dash grinned. “Just sitting up to stretch.”

“Don’t do that! I thought you had died!” He said with an almost angry undertone. “You scared me to death there!”

“Like I said, I’m fine.” Dash patted the bed. “Come on, hop up here. Let’s talk.”

“Why should I?”

“Because I want somepony to talk to. Your friend Nightbloom is a complete dick, Applejack left to go tell everypony I’m alright. And I like you. Do I need better reasons? Cause I’ve been told I can make some great fucking excuses ‘specially when I can already think of forty or so right off the top of my head.” She looked at him, dead in the eyes. “So sit your ass down, or I’m going to get up off this bed, walk to that teleporter and… well I’m sure if I slam my fist down on it, I’ll end up somewhere fun right?” She challenged.

“Do I need to drug you? I will do it.” Einuli growled.

“You wouldn’t.” Dash stated. “Now sit down, and lets talk.”

Einuli continued to glare at her, but he did slowly climb up on the bed.

“Okay, I’ll ask this once. And I want an honest and direct answer from you.”

“What.”

“How do you feel about me?”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile:

Luna had snuck aboard the ship, and was now ‘digging’ around what his ship’s AI was letting her read. Though it was faceless and near nameless she could feel it examining her. Something told her that the only reason she was allowed to see this was because she had no intentions to harm Einuli or any of the other crew members. So far, she was just going over basic things, such as Einuli’s biology, and other Avali biology.

“Ammonia based blood? What the hell?” She muttered. “But… his is… synthesized to absorb oxygen as opposed to methane? Are they some sort of ticking bomb?” She scrolled down  a bit more, “And… then there’s these augments… plus… wait, Rainbow Dash has received augmentations too? Is… he attempting to experiment o…” She trailed off as she read somethings, all of which were clearly in Dash’s handwriting. “So… she wanted them.” She mused. “Hm… I won’t fault her…” She continued to read on. “So, he needs full body scans of alicorns too… I’ll alert Celestia about that… still, what of these pira-” She cut herself off as she read something, it was clearly translated for her to read, as were the specific things she was already reading. “A… he’s making some sort of explosive with… anti-matter?” She gulped. “W… what does he intend to destroy with that much power?” She trailed off, remembering that he currently had Rainbow Dash onboard, at least that’s what the file said. She swapped to a view of the med lab, and her heart beat returned to normal when she saw what was going on...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back in the medlab just a few moments before Luna began to spy on them:

Einuli was absolutely silent.

“Einuli. Speak.” Dash ordered.

“Administer fifty mg of methohexital to pait-”

“Einuli. Tell me.”

Einuli shook his head, but she felt him shake slightly.

“Einuli please. If you’re scared of how I’ll react… just… tell me. I won’t hate you, turn you away… I trust you enough to go into my body and change things about me…” Dash began.

Einuli still remained silent, but he hugged her tightly, her arms and wings wrapping around him.

“I still want to tell me.” Dash said. “It makes things a lot be-”

“I… I t-think I love you…” Einuli mumbled, sniffling a little.

“Einuli…” She began, tilting his head up. “Tell me one other thing…”

“What?” Einuli looked up at her.

“Have you ever kissed somepony. And… I heard a bit about you doing stuff with Cadance. I’m not talking about her ‘showing’ you what love is.” Dash said.

“Not… really?” Einuli said.

“Good, then I’m your first.” She leaned in, pulling the small raptor into a deep kiss, the two immediately falling to their side on the bed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile:

Luna had leaned back in the chair, “Damn. I wish I had popcorn…” She mumbled, immediately a large bucket of steaming hot buttery popcorn appeared on the console. “You’re quite the pleaser.” She joked, “Thank you.” She picked the bucket up and started munching on the popcorn as she watched a bit of debauchery unfold right in front of her.
> Chapter 19: Punishment
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash pulled away, leaving the little raptor practically breathless. With Cadance he had felt… well arousal, in the plainest terms. But this, that kiss honestly made his heart pound. His eyes were unfocused as he tried to reel back into reality.

“Enjoy it tha-” She yelped as he kissed her again. This time she moaned into the kiss, tightening her grip on him. She heard a tearing as he tore the thin gown from her body, though she showed not a single care for it, pressing her body closer to his.

“Gods… I wish you weren’t so hot…” Einuli muttered.

“What, you got a problem with how I look? You’re the one tearing off my… well, hospital gown-thing…” Dash muttered.

“No! No, I mean… you know what… It doesn’t matter… I can survive.” Einuli leaned in and let a new instinct take hold, his kissed her neck, lightly nipping at her flesh. She shivered as she felt how sharp his teeth were. At that moment she felt less like she had any control, and more that she was perfectly cut off… trapped by a preda-

“Curious. What are you two doing?”

“NIGHTBLOOM GO AWAY!” The two said in unison, the mood instantly being shattered by the Glitch.

“Apologetic. I’m sorry for interrupting. I just had to tell you, everything is working at peak efficiency. I will be tending to your request down in the weapon bay.” Nightbloom walked out.

“Fuck, and I thought Maud was emotionless… he just puts her to shame.” Dash grumbled. “And now I’m not feeling this…”

“Neither am I anymore…” Einuli let his head fall down onto the bed. “Can… I stay here though?”

“Of course, why would I kick you out? Well… how could I kick you out even?”

“Ask me to leave.” He pointed out.

“And then when I get up to go use the bathroom, you’d just come charging down here.”

“Actually I can just turn that off now… It’s kinda going to set off once it fully settles into my heartbeat… yours not matching up will send off a lot of alarm bells for it.” Einulie sighed.

“Well then do it!” Dash said, “Hell, just rip it out of the wall for all I care, so long as we aren’t interrupted!”

“Let’s… not damage the delicate equipment in here… Unless you want to see more of Nightbloom.” Einuli stated.

“Not right now, ‘sepcially not when I’m horny… he just…”

“Kills everything? Yeah, he’ll take that as a compliment. If his weapons, armor, and tech knowledge don’t work out for us… well, we’d die horribly.” Einuli sighed. “But, enough about the bad…” He nuzzled into Dash’s neck.

“You want to cuddle.” She laughed. He nodded, tickling her neck. “Fine, just don’t tell anypony…”

“I won’t.”

---------------------------------------

Meanwhile:

“Damn it! There went the show…” Luna muttered. “And here I thought I’d see Dash honestly get gushy over something… psssh…” She leaned back. “And now I need to keep this a secret… at least until I can blackmail the two to… come spend a little time with me.” She grinned, only to have the seat she was in flop her down onto the ground. “Ow! It was a joke!”

Then big letters appeared on the screen. ‘Pervert.’

“I am not! I was worried about him hurting Dash! She’s a her-”

‘Then why did you want to watch them have sex?’

“I ju… Was curious… how he did it…”

‘With a dick? Really, have you never seen one?’

“Don’t accuse me of things! I didn’t know what Cadance had him add to his body! I just heard he had been given a d-”

‘You read his medical records… and now all cameras are shut down. And you are being locked out of all systems.’

“What, why? What did I d-” Luna was cut off as a particularly ticked off looking fuzzy raptor stepped into the control room, with Dash -now having gotten her clothes back- behind him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Einuli asked, Luna looking wide-eyed at him. “Breaking into my ship, going through MY files… and then tapping into MY SECURITY SYSTEM?! If I had half a mind I’d eject you into space… but you’d simply survive that and go back down. So instead…” He raised a strange device.

“What is that?” Luna asked.

“A translocater. And… well, we’ll all be going where it takes us.” Einuli growled, hitting the button. All three of them were instantly teleported down to Twilight’s castle, surprising the six gathered mares.

“W-what, Princess Luna? W-when did you get up to the ship? A-and w…”

“Luna decided to go digging through private information, namely medical records and private security feeds…” Einuli began, drawing all attention to Luna who was looking rather embarrassed.

“I can explain…”

“With a bucket of popcorn. She intended to watch something… rather private.” Dash added.

“Your ship AI gave me the popcorn!”

“Wait… wait… you two were…” Twilight began glancing to Dash.

“Hey! It wasn’t some one-time thing for me. I wanted to, and hell, if he keeps being this cool and awesome… he might have me tagging along when he leaves…” Dash said. “Unlike Cadance… who I’m sure now was just trying to sleep with him for the sake of him being exotic…” She tapped her chin. “Does… being perverted run in Royalty? Like, is Bookworm here the only one it missed?”

“Hey! I take offence to that!” Twilight snapped.

“Really, who have you slept with?”

“There was that one time wi…”

“That was a kiss, and some cuddling before you decided he was a douche who only wanted sex.” Rarity said.

“To be fair he was.” Twilight muttered.

“And then yah found out Big Mac was gay… can’t forget that.” Applejack chuckled.

“That was hilarious and that was before you even became a Princess too!” Dash laughed.

“Alright… I haven’t slept with any stallions! I haven’t… found the right one.” Twilight huffed.

“We are not all perverted… Cadance… mmm… She gods knows how long being raised by Celestia after she came of age… and Twilight has the luck of having you girls to counter Celestia’s influence…” Luna muttered. “Just… be glad it was me spying on you two…”


“You shouldn’t have gone on my HOME without my permission! There’s a reason I haven’t put any surface teleporters down! And there you go, breaking my trust and reading private information!” Einuli stated.

“Einuli… just calm down…” Starlight said.

“You know what, despite your fuzziness and cuteness, I didn’t trust you. Regardless of what Twilight, and all the mares here think, you still could be a threat!” Luna stated, brushing herself off and standing up. “And, with you producing some sort of ANTI-MATTER EXPLOSIVE how can I be sure you won’t try to wipe out the pl-”

“That isn’t for surface use!  I want to annihilate and the floran pirates and make sure NOTHING survives! They’ve committed genocide on an unknown number of planets, INCLUDING KILLING MY ENTIRE FAMILY AND PACK! I won’t… WON’T LET THAT HAPPEN HERE!” Einuli growled right back, “You don’t trust me, FINE. I don’t care! There was NO REASON for you to go digging! I was more than fine with simply letting you in! Now I have to lock EVERYTHING BUT ME AND THE CREW OUT because it appears I can trust relatively few creatures here. Until I decide who I can trust with my private research, medical records, files, and anything else I’ve collected, you and ALL other ponies aren’t allowed to step FOOT on my home. The ONLY exceptions to that are Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. If you want to come aboard, you’ll remain within sight at all times, and you won’t even THINK about using magic, or touching ANYTHING I don’t allow you to.” He seemed to just be growing angrier. He threw the translocater to Applejack. “With that you can access my ship. If you intend to let anyone else on, you’ll alert me before such a time.” He teleported himself up to his ship, leaving everypony in the room to stare in utter shame at Luna, who now felt the weight of what she had just done.

“Oh gods…” Lune muttered, putting her head in her hands. “Oh gods…”

“Oh gods is right…” Twilight muttered, all ponies but Starlight and her instantly being teleported out of the castle. “I… Need some sleep…” She muttered, collapsing into a chair.

“I’m… sure, just sure he’ll be back down later… and all of this will be cleared up.” Starlight reasoned.

"I hope so... I... he can't be blaming all of us for what Luna did, right? It's just... him being angry..." Twilight muttered.

"There's no doubt that he'll cool off tomorrow and be back here... Though, he does have full right to be mad at her... doing something like that, is just... wrong. Especially after how he's been nothing but open and friendly with all of us..." Starlight sighed quietly.
> Chapter 20: Thoughts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was the day after Einuli reached his breaking point, thanks (near fully) to Luna’s invasion of his home and privacy. But, he had sat on it for the entire time, now beginning to feel that it was unfair to blame the others for her actions. Now, outfitted in a different outfit, this one known as the ‘Stalker’ set for it’s dark black look and sleek design, he went back down to the planet. First on his list to apologize to would be Twilight, as she was truly the first of the ponies he could call a friend, and the one who had lead to him meeting all the rest. Sure, Luna had been his first contact… but right now, she seemed to be the worst example of any ponies he’d met. From there he’d hope to make amends for his outburst to the rest of them.

He had come in what appeared to be the early day, and he slowly and uncertainly approached the castle. The morning guards immediately perking up and opening the castle doors for him as he approached.

“Thank the gods your here… Princess Twilight hasn’t been able to sleep since your last visit!” One of them said.

“I… think I know why.” Einuli sighed.

“Neither has Starlight, hell, if it weren’t for her barring Princess Luna from the castle, I’m sure she’d be here too!” The second guard added.

Einuli paused for naught but a moment, and he silently continued into the castle. He didn’t need directions to find her, the pair of goggles he had on were installed with a heartbeat sensor, and various other tracking methods, giving him near perfect ‘sight’ around him. He really didn’t want to be sneaked up on, or taken by surprise right now, he was still agitated and he really, really didn’t want to harm anyone in a jumpy attack.

Immediately as he approached the throne room his sensors went off, detecting one pony in there. His first hope is that’d it’d Twilight, but he still wanted to speak with Starlight, and seeing as it appeared those two were the only ones here he really couldn’t complain.

He opened the doors and stepped in, Twilight was sitting on her throne, looking utterly disheveled, and completely out of it. She was staring at the friendship map which appeared to be going absolutely berserk, specifically over Ponyville. Though he could only recognize one symbol overtop of the town, one that reminded him of Rainbow Dash...

Einuli quickly approached Twilight, “Hey… Twilight?” He said, snapping her attention to him instantly.

“Einuli!” Twilight said quickly, smiling a little for a moment. “It’s goo- W… why are you dressed like that? A… are you planning on l-lea…”

“No! No, it’s just… what I put on.” Einuli shook his head. “I… thought about what happened yesterday… a lot.” He said quietly.

“I’ve been thinking about it too. I think everypony has…” Twilight sighed.

“I was… angry. The moment I truly decided to open up… just having Luna trample on my privacy and home, without even asking if she could be there… it hit me hard. I realized though… I shouldn’t be blaming anyone but her for it.” He began. “It was wrong of me to bar everyone else from stepping foot on my home… and I think… it may have done more damage than I initially realized. I was angry, unlike anything I’ve felt in a long time… and I just felt the need to be alone.” He sighed, “But, I can see why she’d do that. She didn’t trust my intentions.”

“I honestly don’t see why. You came to alert us the moment you detected them. And you told us how to protect ourselves. And, that’s not mentioning how angry you were talking about them! If anything you’re interactions with Applejack and Rainbow Dash have proven your honesty and commitment to protecting us. If they trust you, there’s no reason for any of us not to.” Twilight stood up, and hugged him.

“Thank you… I never meant to drag you and everyone else down… I wasn’t thin…”

“Don’t worry. So long as you don’t hate any of us it doesn’t matter.” She smiled, resting against him. Using both her magic and her natural strength as an alicorn (though he was relatively light) and she pulled him into her lap atop her throne. Einuli nuzzled her warmly, gladly throwing off his garments (he was already hot as is, just he had begun to grow a small sense of modesty- mainly to protect his new parts), and cuddling against her. “Thanks to this good news… I think everypony can finally rest.” She sighed.

“Yeah, all of us can…” He trailed off for a moment.

“I can already tell what you’re thinking. And that’s an amazing idea.” Twilight grinned. “We’ll just need to gather everypony… which, shouldn’t be hard for you, me, and once we get Starlight… well we’ll get everypony here in no time at all.”

“Great! The sooner we get everyone together the sooner we can all sleep.”

--------------------------------------------------

Thirty minutes later:

All of the other mares, including Derpy and now Sweetie, Scootaloo, and Applebloom, had gathered in Twilight’s castle. All of them (except the CMC who were here because alien) were more than relieved to see that Einuli wasn’t mad at them.

“So, what are we going to do?” Rainbow Dash stretched out, plopping down on the floor and pulling Einuli up against her.

“I… just thought it’d be a good idea to invite all of you up at once. Maybe spend some time together, and all of us can get some sleep.” He offered.

“I know you said we’re welcome up there…”

“Just… if you want to get into any files or things. Please tell me first.” Einuli said. “I… Trust all of you. And, I feel the best way to show that is… well to just open my home and life up to you.” He explained.

“Sweet! So we’re going up to your ho-” Scootaloo began.

“Oh no, no! Yah girls ain’t goin up there. He don’t need yah managin to destroy anythin! Plus, there’s other creatures up there that are busy!” Applejack scolded.

“Come on! We only managed ta burn the barn down once!” Applebloom retorted.

“Honestly… everything other than the farm, and treehouse are capable of surviving the rigors of space travel unprotected…” Einuli said.

“These three are a force of nature.” Dash said. “They’ve nearly destroyed the town a few times… on their own.”

“We won’t get near anything that can break easily!” Sweetie said.

“Please, we’ll stay in sight and not run off…” Scootaloo offered.

“We want to go! It isn’t fair that we’ll get left out!” Applebloom stated.

“It isn’t up to us. We’re being invited up.” Rarity said.

“OH GODS RARITY WHY DID YOU SAY THAT?” Pinkie blurted out moments before Einuli was tackled by the three young mares, now buried completely under the pile of bodies.

“Rarity!” Twilight stated, only to watch Einuli rise up with all three of the Crusaders clinging to him.

“Please, can we come?”

“We promise we’ll be good!”

“We promise!”

Rainbow Dash, -thanks to her now increased strength- and Applejack managed to pull both Scootaloo and Applebloom respectively off of Einuli.

“We just wanna see it, please don’t leave us down here!” Sweetie pleaded.

Einuli let out a long sigh as Sweetie was pulled off of him by Rarity. He closed his eyes for a moment, he hit a button on the inside of his coat. The entire group were teleported up to his ship, though only a few of the group currently had been up here. This time instead of ending up in the main teleporter room, they were out in the middle of his farm, an area around the size of Sweet Apple Acres, just more compact and with far less apple trees. There was a massive variety of crops, ranging from the common -wheat, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots- to strange varieties they’d never seen before including what looked like…

“Why do those tomatoes look like they’re made of metal?” Sweetie asked, picking an automato off its’ stem. She smelled it, taking note of the acidy smell.

“That little area is specifically for things Nightbloom can eat. That’s a species known as Atumoato. They have battery acid inside instead of water… as well as I’ve been told, at least scientifically speaking, that they have  burning taste to any… well non-robotic life-forms.”

“Who ate one?”

“Femanti.” Einuli chuckled. “She got curious and ate a full one, she was sick for a few hours afterwards… they won’t kill you, but… definetly, DEFINETLY don’t eat it.” Einuli plucked it from Sweetie’s hand, carrying it over to a little chest. “All areas of the ship are connected to a storage system that auto-sorts, and keeps everything nice and contained. Things won’t spoil as they’re kept in cryo-stasis, and they require no thawing time thanks to nanites being able to unfreeze every molecule in a short amount of time.” He explained. “Which comes to my first point… what does your species eat?”
> Chapter 21: Always All Ways
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You… don’t know what we eat?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

“Of course. I can tell from your digestive tracts and oral structure that you’re all omnivorous… but, I’m asking what you individually eat.” Einuli said. “Tis why I brought us here. Fresh produce that you all can pick and choose.” He motioned for them to follow, the group doing so as he lead them to the edge of the farm. They noticed mushrooms growing along the fence and just on the other side, near the gate was a giant grouping of fungus.

“What’s that? And why is it growing near th- AH IT JUST MOVED!” Sweetie screeched, hiding behind Applejack.

“Ah, right. It’s a living fungal organism.” Einuli explained. “And it SHOULD be keeping it’s growth to the OTHER side of the fence.” He reached down and picked one of the mushrooms, throwing it at the fungal colony. It twitched and the mushrooms began to retreat. “If you’re hungry, I’ll grow more things on the other side. These plants are for our consumption, not yours.” He scolded.

“I remember you telling me about that the first time we met!” Twilight said, “Does it have a name?”

“Oh! It’s actually a modified colony Shehal,” He said. “It tends to keep weeds down, helps some of the plants grow a lot better, allowing for several harvests a solar month. That in combination with the enhanced soils I use… well, you can imagine it ups efficency, and lowers the time spent harvesting and tending to crops.”

“S… several harvests?” Applejack muttered, staring wide-eyed at his farm.

“Yes!”

“Otherwise they’d just be eating nutrient paste.”

“And that stuff tastes horrible… and I’ve had to eat old UECM rations when I got stuck on a prison colony during a solar storm… those tasted like a five star meal compared to the paste…” He nearly gagged. “I’m glad we were able to get this started up.”

“I… Uuh…”

“Sorry… It takes a lot to produce the specific nutriets required… and  most of them come from the fungal colonies that are grown on board the ship. The soil is required to be refereshed every 30 solar cycles.” Einuli shook his head. “Like I told Starlight about the generator… it’d just impractical to make a second one, and… it’s already hard enough to power it, it’s likewise hard to create the soil.”

“I thought you were a doctor.” Dash said. “Not a uuh… plant science thingy.”

“Biologist, Dash.” Twilight corrected.

“Thanks Twi, you’re right… Nerd.” Dash laughed.

“Hmph.”

“Well, I’m… one of the only two who has a care for science… Oloxoc. Is the other. So, we’re technically the scientists on board. I focus on more naturalistic sciences… Medicine, Biology, Xeno Cryptology, Marine Biology… Botany, Herbology…” Einuli began to list of his various knowledge bases.

“Wh…”

“Um, during my free time I connect to the Illuminate AI systems… it allows me to access knowledge and information the Avali have gathered. I don’t claim to be masterful in anything other than Medicine. As that’s what I tend to practice. But, when I don’t have patients… or am not researching other species… I do other things.” Einuli explained. “It keeps me entertained and allows me to relieve stress.”

“Well… Um…” Twilight began.

“Would yah… mind…”

“Later, right now, I’m guessing all of us… except for those three, might need some sleep.” Einuli sighed. “And some food.”

The eight mares nodded, while the other three (the CMC) were exploring the farm.

“Hm… since it appeares they’ll be exploring a bit…” He walked over to a console and typed some things in. “Alright! They can’t access any of the vital systems… or anything dangerous.”

“Like what?”

“Medical bay, armory, forge, engine rooms, electrical rooms, and the cockpit.” He said. “I’ve also asked Femanti to keep an eye on them. Make sure they don’t hurt themselves… or somehow break the dome… or fuck with the weather. I don’t want anyone or anything dying in here.”

The aforementioned Femanti teleported up. The ‘female’ floran was armored up, though she had no weapons. “Sssup!” She waved.

“That is Femanti. One of the two people in the crew with military training of any regard. Though, we can all fight effectively thanks to them training us.” He introduce her.

“Ssso who am I watching? And why?” Femanti asked.

“Those three.” He motioned to the three mares poking and prodding the sentient fungal colony.

“Will… that thing eat them?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“No. It doesn’t eat any forms of meat… sticking completely to plant life. Except Florans. Anything on this farm…”

“Has been made with me in mind.” Femanti said, walking over to the three mares, hauling two of them off in moments. The two being plopped on their asses. “Alright, lisssten up. I’m here to make ssssure you three…” She hauled Scootaloo off the fungus too, setting her down beside her friends. “Don’t get into any trouble. You will lisssten to me. Do you underssstand?”

“Yes ma’am!” The three mares saluted.

“Well, Femanti should have them under control!” Einuli teleported the other with him to his tree house.

“Doubt she’ll be able to handle them…” Rarity muttered quietly.

“She managed to shunt an overrun prison down. Getting the prisoners to surrender with little fight.” Einuli said. “I’m sure she’ll be able to handle those three.”

“Well… if you’re so sure…” Dash said.

“So, this is your home?” Fluttershy asked, finally speaking up.

“Yes! This is where I’ve been living when I’m not down on planets.” He nodded. “Um… Here just give me a minute and I can get some extra beds set up.”

“Oh, you don’t need to go through that much effor Darl-” Rarity cut herself off as Einuli whipped out his Matter Manipulator, and quickly began to tear down the furniture in the room.

None of them had seen it in action before, and it was… well to say the least magical. No magic could compare to what they were watching, things were vanishing quickly and he was even faster to replace it with comfortable looking beds.

“Wow… I… wow…” Twilight muttered.

“What… other things do you have?” Dash asked.

“W… where are those things going?” Derpy asked.

“Does… that affect living things too?” Starlight asked.

“Yes, to storage, it’s wirelessly connected to the storage system in the ship, and no it would only just feel like a light tickling.” Einuli turned and pointed it at Starlight, who received the very feeling he said it would cause. “No threat to anyone. It needs a solid foundation to place anything down, and it works in cubic meters for placing walling and floors.” He said. “Just… if any of you were wondering.”

“Do… you have a second one of those things?”

“No. And… to be honest. I don’t know how it really works… I got it from a human I met…” Einuli trailed off for a moment. “That’s a story for a different time though.” He looked to everyone and smiled. “All of these beds could… well be considered luxurious, so feel free to take any of them.” He chirped. Each of the girls ran to a bed and plopped down on them, the durasteel frames not even budging. Well, all of them except for Twilight.

“Before I sleep… could, I actually talk to you… Privately?” She asked.

“Oh! Sure. Um… all of you are free to go look in the kitchen. I’ve set the console in it to use Engli- Equish…” He had to correct himself. “So you can call in anything you need, so long as I have it. Um, the counter, stove, and the nano-oven. Work just like any of your appliances would. At least I’d hope. But, the chance of burning is relatively low, unless your forcefully put something back it.”

By now, only really Derpy, Starlight, and Rarity were still awake. Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash having simply passed out.

“Alright, though I believe all of us are just going to get a bit of rest… We need it after everything that’s happened.” Rarity smiled.

Einuli nodded and smiled back, leading Twilight off to his room so they could speak.

Now, unlike the beds that were out there, Einuli’s was suspended from the ceiling in what could be called a basket. Though, it was surprisingly even bigger than the ones out there.

“Huh…” Twilight muttered.


“What?” Einuli asked, jumping onto his bed and rolling around in the already messed up covers. The sight of him flailing and rolling about was enough to make her flop down on it too.

“Just wondering why you have such a big bed.” Twilight sighed, relaxing into the actually comfortable mattress.

“Oh, it was a gift… I didn’t want to just waste it, and I honestly liked having something that…” He put his hand against the wall and shoved off, the bed swinging a little with the force, causing Twilight to both squeal and laugh.

“Don’t do that!” She said half-heartedly, as she was already grinning. “And besides… that wasn’t near enough force…” She magically forced it to swing from side to side, tossing them both into the center, Twilight right on top of Einuli. “Are you okay?” She asked quickly, thinking she may of hurt him in the impact.

“I’m fine! Don’t worry about me, you way nothing compared to some things I’ve been hit with… namely Pinkie. And a steel wall.” Einuli assured, hugging her. “So, what did you want to talk about?”

“Luna.” Twilight sighed. Einuli’s face immediately fell.

“Why.”

“Because, I want you to talk to her.” Twilight stated.

“About what? Accusing me of wanting to kill? Or, invading my home? If I had done that to any of you, wouldn’t I  have ended up in a cell for the rest of my life? Who would have cared? I’m not from your planet…” Einuli muttered.

“I don’t want you to forgive her. That’s not my decision. But I do want her to apologize. You may not want to but… I’d li-”

“Stop. I won’t speak to her. I outright refuse to. I have nothing to say to her. I’d feel the same if any of you had done it too.” Einuli said, pushing Twilight away.

“I’m not going to pretend to know how this feels. Having your private sanctum invaded by somepony you thought you could trust… having your life snooped into in the name of ‘safety’ when you stated outright, you’d die to protect us… for nothing more than being friendly to you.” Twilight began. “It’s just… I know Luna… or at least thought I did. And if some of what I still know is true… then, the worst thing you can do right now, wouldn’t be ignoring her. It’d be to confront her. Make her feel more shameful for not trusting you.”

“Don’t lie to me.” Einuli said quietly.

“Please… go down, and at least let her apologize. What you do beyond that… it’s your choice.” Twilight said. “She’s suffering too. And… I doubt, she’d ever do this again.”

Einuli muttered quietly before sighing, “Fine. I’ll give her one chance to prove she’s sorry. Though… don’t expect I’ll let her or Celestia back up here.” He stated. “I… don’t trust them.”

“Thank you.” Twilight hugged him, only to have him sit up. “What are you doing?”

“Getting it over with. Where is she?” Einuli glanced back to Twilight.

“The last I heard Derpy had taken her in… I stopped really caring in my own… fit of anger.” Twilight mumbled.

The two were instantly teleported down to the surface, just outside of Twilight’s castle.

“Let’s go find her then.” Einuli stood up, helping Twilight to her feet as well.
> Chapter 22: Messed Up Chances
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight was the first to enter Derpy’s house. The first thing she saw was an honestly well-rested Luna.

“Coming to torment me some more?” Luna questioned.

“No.” Twilight said.

“Ah, let me guess. The maniac is right behind you, and you want an apology?” Luna said. “Well, you won’t get one. I have nothing to apologize for. Twilight. You’ve barely been ruling, and you haven’t seen half the threats Celestia and I have. And you seem to not be able to register threats when they initially pop up. I believe Starlight’s betrayal was enough to show that.” She said coldly, “Or should I mention Discord as well? It seems so far I haven’t been wrong about betrayal. Now have I?”

“And now, you’re trying to befriend something with the ability to wipe out all life in Equestria with nothing more than the press of a button. What if that fails? What if he decides to hit that button, because there’s something useful under us? Will ‘the magic of friendship’ work on his bomb? Because I have a feeling it won’t care once it’s dropped, or teleported in. I doubt it’ll even be able to be defused, only detonated on touch down, or in the air.”

Einuli clenched his fists.

“He has a sure advantage over us, even with their lack of numbers… they have technology enough to change the physicalities of a pony with little issue. And you haven’t even seen the military hardware they’re harboring? Why have an armory fit for a full army if you’re only a group of eight?” Luna stated, slowly standing up.

Einuli breathed in and out, calming himself down.

“How much do you really know of them?” Luna asked, “How much have you made up?”

“I haven’t made things up about him!” Twilight retorted.

“Oh? But you trusted him enough to leave your friends alone up on his ship I’m guessing. What if he’s more cunning then you’re giving him. And this was all just a ploy to draw the weak in…”

“For what?” Einuli said. “Your baseless claims against me? One of them has lost her home to some organic mass that consumed it. Two more are on the run from their religious cult. I lost everything and BARELY  kept my sanity. I spent three years alone in space, after being forced to end my closest friends’ suffering. I know very little about your kind. And your magic. You want to know the outcome of Shining’s time playing around with some of our tech?” He stated. “Well, since your first entrance, I put up an energy and kinetic shield. You teleport right through that. Your shielding magic is capable of stopping energy blasts from our strongest weapons. The best we have is melee. But, oh, what’s this? You can control the moon? Well, what the fuck is getting in close range going to do? And let me tell you something, this anti-matter bomb, it’s now even been produced yet. Suzy stopped it, saying there had to be a better, more sure way of destroying them. But, you jumped to conclusions there, didn’t you? We’re going to storm their ship, and take them out before they can even threaten your PLANET with a biological weapon that’d render any survivors worthless. It’d consume all non-plant life on the planet. I don’t think flying or magic could save you from an airborne spore, could it? Or, did you forget that I swore to make sure they wouldn’t harm a single creature on this planet? I’m sure you did when you decided to start tearing into my things, and then going on to assume I had the worst possible intentions. I’ve never lead a country, I wouldn’t want to. I’m not in the right state of mind for such a thing, and I won’t pretend I am. What I do know, is what I’m going to do, and what I want not to happen. I’m going to protect your planet, regardless of what it costs me, and I’m not going to let any ponies get hurt in the process. Fuck what you think. Because now, right after the engines are fixed, and the pirates are dead, I’m leaving this system and wiping it from my logs. You won’t ever have to worry about me or my friends again.” He scoffed, curling his lip up as he stared at Luna.

“I hope the next group to find you is just as friendly as I tried to be. Though, knowing how horrible the universe can be… I doubt it’ll happen that way.” He turned and walked out of the house.

Twilight was silently staring at Luna.

“Have something more to say? I received what I wanted. His word he’d leave us alone.” Luna stated. “I’m trying to protect you, and the rest of Eques-”

“From what? He’s already shared augmentation with Rainbow Dash. Applejack hasn’t caught him lying yet. Let’s not forget how open he was to your initial invasion, which lead to him trying to befriend us when he was alone. You must have seen something that at least gave you pause or did you just go up there thinking the worst of another species? I think that’s outright horrific if you did. And, what about him befriending Cadance? Sure, she convinced him to sleep with her, which… is bad in it’s own right. But, he didn’t harm her when he was alone for nearly a full day with her. She came back, sure tired and passed out, but right after a few hours of rest, wasn’t she back on her feet and behaving just like always? Or did you have ‘doctors’ check her out and, ‘Oh look!’ She’s been hurt!” Twilight stated coldly. “And don’t you DARE bring up Starlight and Discord. Without Discord’s help, we wouldn’t be here right now. You, Celestia, Cadance, and I would all be locked in Tatarus. The rest of Equestria, and possibly the world would be enslaved. Starlight’s MORE than proven herself to be trustworthy, and willing to make up for past mistakes. You had the ‘grace’ of not being in control when Nightmare did horrible things.”

Luna was silent, unable to fully respond to it.

“Or… gods forbid, you and Celestia having a little spat. Without Starlight, you two wouldn’t have ever returned to speaking terms. You behave like a penchant foal so often, it’s a wonder Celestia even gives you permission to rule.” Twilight scowled. “You gave him one chance, and then shoved that away when you found out he was planning on building something dangerous.”

“Something that co-”

“More so than the power you and Celestia hold? I’m sure if you wanted to, you could just blast his entire ship away, killing him without so much as a second thought. How do you think that makes them feel? We hold magic, flight without anything extra, strength beyond what they can normally achieve. He must be scared when he comes down here, especially with how ponies react to him, yet he tries to show he isn’t bad. And when he tries desperately to prove he doesn’t mean us any harm… you go and force him to leave. I know we’re supposed to protect Equestria, but, look at it like this… if he’s opening up to one of us enough to give them things we could never even dream of. Or letting one of our other leaders in on his armory, and training routines… If we had tried, he may have offered more help. But now, not only have you turned somepony seeking a bit of friendship, in what seems like an utterly horrible, and empty universe, you’ve opened the door right up for others to do the same. I hope you’re pleased with yourself. And I hope that you’ve done enough damage that you feel the need to leave him alone now. My friends and I are going to spend the last bit of time we have with him trying to show him we’re not all going to treat him like a monster.” Twilight’s tone was unusually cold as she glared at Luna. “In time we might be able to forgive you for forcing somepony we’ve begun to care for away. But, until then, you can consider yourself unwelcome in Ponyville. And don’t expect me to speak to you when I’m in Canterlot.”

Twilight walked out without another word.
> Chapter 23: Change Of Plans
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight found Einuli within moments, the alien had walked out into the middle of the road. It was clear even from a distance he was agitated, and it didn’t appear that it was Luna who was the cause of it. He was fidgeting around with a small hand held device.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, lightly hugging Einuli.

“Something bad’s come up.” He said.

“What?”

“Just…” He trailed off, teleporting the two of them up to the ship once more. Suzy, who was with Spike, the dragon not having been seen since he left with Suzy several days ago. He did look remarkably different now, seeming tired and worn out. He was sitting in a chair, his feet up on a console. Dandy, Nightbloom, Ayaka, Chotl, and Oloxoc were all there as well. Every one of them except Nightbloom was in armor and brandishing various weapons.

“Good! You got here as soon as I sent the message out.” Dandy said, the armor he had on looked remarkably like something she’d seen an Appleoosan sheriff in. Though, it wasn’t made of any cloth material, in fact it was clearly made out of some foreign metal.  He had two holsters, each with a revolver holstered in them. A shotgun (now she didn’t know the names of these weapons) on his back, and a very fiery whip attached right under his right holster.

The two avian twins looked like tribal warriors from an ancient civilization. Oloxoc had a spear and shield in hand, both looking brand new. A strange glow was radiating off the tip of the spear (radioactive, though it was contained). Chotl had a wand and dagger in hand, the dagger glowing bright blue, while the wand had an icy color.

Ayaka looked like a Nieghponese Samurai, with a katana sheathed at her side, a sword on the other. There was a particularly brutal looking quarterstaff on her back. She appeared to be the most calm, though Twilight had little actual contact with her.

Suzy’s armor was unlike anything Twilight had seen before. Suzy had an assault rifle in hand, her helmet laying on the console beside her. She had a sword attached to her hip, one that gave off an ethereal glow.

Spike was likewise in armor Twilight didn't recognize. He had no weapons visible, and appeared to just be resting for the moment. It was a relief to see he was alright, and she wanted to ask him what he’d been doing, but that thought was pushed aside as he spoke. “So, what exactly did you call us all up here, armed and ready for battle, for?”

“Well, are drones picked up something rather interesting a few hours ago.” Dandy hit a button on the main console. A feed appeared on screen, showing a thermal outline, one that Twilight immedietly could recognize as Celestia. “She was spotted going into the Floran’s ship. My bet is she’s trying to find out what they’re planning.” He said. “But, we’ve detected several messages being shared… she’s been captured. Thankfully though, they don’t plan on doing anything to her right away… she’s being held in what was once the brig.” He explained, tapping another button. “Now, Partners. Let’s go over my plan for this. Then Einuli, you can go get suited up.”

“What about Femanti?” Suzy asked.

“She’s busy. We can do just fi-”

“I want to go.” Twilight stated.

All the others looked at her for a moment, including Spike.

“Twilight… listen, I’ve spent… like the last four or so days here training with both Suzy and Femanti… all of them are trained in military tactics. They’re capable of handling this…” Spike said.

“No. She needs to go.” Einuli said. “She needs to know how hellish some creatures are out here.”

“And Celestia is my mentor.” Twilight stated. “And with me, I can back you all down there as heroes if anything else happens.”

“Serious. Are you sure?” Nightbloom asked, the glitch speaking. “You don’t seem hardy. What experience do you have?”

“Her, and our friends have fought a changeling army, battled a goddess who wanted to bring eternal night to our world… battled a being that took away their magic, and Twilight battled a second changeling army after Starlight messed with the timeline. She’s experienced, though… not militarily.” Spike said. “And, Twilight… what I’ve seen, and been put through, it’s a different world out there. They won’t listen to reason or sanity. They want us all dead. And if we don’t kill them first… we’ll be used as research material for their bioweapons… or used as food.” He sighed. “It’s… nothing, nothing like Equestria. Even Sombra doesn’t compare to the pure evil these pirates are.”

“I know. But, I want to prove not all of us are bad. After what Luna did… I want you all to stay for a longer period of time. It’d be… wonderful to get to know what all of you know. And this… I feel like this is the only way to prove my commitment.” Twilight stated.

“We don’t have time to augment you… so we’ll have to stick to lighter weapons, and your magic, if you’re going to fight… But, we can get you some weapons and armor. Can’t we Nightbloom?” Einuli asked.

Nightbloom nodded. “Serious. Come with me. I’ll get you outfitted.” He motioned for Twilight to follow him.

Twilight left with the glitch smith.

“What happened with Luna?” Spike asked.

“She broke into the ship, dug through private files. And then accused us all of wanting to destroy Equestria. Then, called me a maniac, and continued to accuse me of wanting to bring harm to Equestria.” Einuli explained. “Just… being around her right now makes me angry. She wants us gone from this planet. And I told her we’d leave once the Florans are dead, and the engines repaired.”

“W-... what you’re just going to leave?” Spike asked a little worriedly. “Why? Equus is a great place! Don’t let Luna or any hateful ponies drag you down!”

“I got a bit angry at her. And…”

“It’s my decision if, and when we leave.” Dandy said. “It may have been Einuli’s ship before, but now it’s ours. And we’ll run this democratically. Regardless of what your leaders want, we’re an entity all our own. We have no affiliations to any groups, races, or factions. We’re a crew. Not some military force.” He stated, “If we say we’re going to do something, like protect your planet. We’ll do it. And we’ll look fucking awesome doing it too.” He hit a few buttons, all of them receiving a copy of the battle plan to their helmets. “Einuli, go get suited up. We’re gonna need our field medic with us, aren’t we?”

“Alright. I’ll be back soon.” Einuli said, beaming himself to his private armory.
> Chapter 24: Suiting Up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was really the first time Twilight saw the forge room. It… did look like a forge. Stone brick, magma, water, fire, molten metals… it was quite the sight. Appearing more like something that she’d see in Equestria, except the strange furnaces and the few strange tables in the middle of the room.

“Wow… this is amazing…” Twilight mumbled.

“Appreciatory. Thank you. With Einuli’s matter manipulator it was quite easy to build this. It runs much like any other forge. Metals are melted down over the magma, or the stronger ones are melted and turned to ingots in the Fission Furnaces.” He motioned to the strange machines stacked atop each other. “I create the armors, weapons, mech parts- for the modular mechs we have, one for each of us- and EPP’s at the Replicators.” He motioned to the circular table things, as the approached holographic screen appeared over top of each of the three tables, one red, one blue, and one green. Each had symbols she recognized, the red one had a sword as the startup screen, the blue a chakram, and the green a bow.

“Each of these is outfitted to produce different things. The red is for close range and high impact armors. The blue for energy based weapons and armor, including wands, staves, chakram, and throwing weapons. As well as the armor helps stabilize and produce additional energy for them. The green produces long range weapons including bows, guns, and crossbows, as well as armor that help stabilize the shooter, and provide nanites that help with the arrows or shots fired.” He continued. “This over here, is the Armory System. It produces specialized armors and weapons. Made with very specific and rare materials. Hard to find the minerals and metals needed to produce them, but the specific things they can apply thanks to their nanites is wondrous and useful.”

“And you say you don’t have magic…”

“No. We do not. Technology is wondrous in its’ own right. Nanites can do amazing things, but they have to be made with specific materials to create those effects.” Nightbloom shook his head. “Only wizards have magic. And it appears your race does to now.” He walked over to a console, with a small platform underneath it. He typed some things in and ingots appeared underneath it, they were of an unknown composition. He carried them over to the Armory, the ingots being broken down near instantly after touching the table. He then carried over some other materials, using a console on the Armory Station to produce armor. Twilight raised an eyebrow before lasers began to scan her. “It’ll be only two to three minutes, than you’ll be able to try it on.”

“Alright, what about… uuh, weapons?” Twilight said uncertainly.

“Curious. Have you ever used any?” Nightbloom asked.

“No… not really.” Twilight sighed.

“Serious. Then I shall make you two basic swords. Unless you’d prefer something else.” He said, walking to the red Replicator. He placed a few ingots down on the table and went to work, the nanites in the table reforming the ingots he had placed down into recognizable forms.

“Swords are fine… Um I’ll probably just use my magic.” Twilight laughed quietly.

Nightbloom paused, removing the ingots and moving them to the blue table. Now moving to produce her a wand and pistol. “You prefer range? Then I shall make you an elemental wand and some form of pistol. Would you prefer machine pistol, revolver, or regular pistol. There are also sawed off shotguns I can produce.”

“I… don’t know what any of those are.” Twilight said.

“... I’ll explain them to you in a short amount of time.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile: Einuli had gotten dressed, now in a ‘Stalker’ outfit once again, this time with Advanced Alloy inserts covering his vitals. He walked over to a weapon rack, and pulled off a two handed spear, one that looked like a large halberd. He attached that to the back of his armor, positioning it so he could put his custom made grenade launcher, one of Avali design. It was bright orange and white, using nano-produced grenades that could produce various effects, ones chosen before launching.

He sighed quietly as he opened up one last locker. Inside were pristine looking energy launchers. One for each wrist. They were the final thing he was able to salvage from his old colony, and he hadn’t used them since. “It’s time I stop running.” He stated, pulling them both out, attaching them to his wrists. He turned to the durasteel wall on the south side of his private armory and test fired them. Two bright orange energy bolts slamming into it, creating large burn marks on the wall. “Let’s do this then.” He walked to the exit of his armory, the doors sliding open. He grabbed his helmet, one that looked rather sleek and fierce.

The blasts had awoken the girls sleeping in the main room of his Treehouse, and all of them stared at Einuli as he came out.

“W-what was that?” Fluttershy mumbled, cowering a little behind Dash.

“I was testing my energy blasters. It’s been years since they’ve seen use.” Einuli said.

“Why… are you armored?” Applejack asked.

“Because, Celestia’s been taken prisoner by the Florans. Me, and the rest of the crew, now including Spike and Twilight, are going to rescue her.” Einuli stated.

“Woah, woah, you’re… going to rescue her? W-why not get the gu-” Dash cut herself off. “Right… in space.” She sighed.

“You all are to remain here.” Einuli stated. “Femanti will be staying behind to…”

“I’m coming with.” Rainbow Dash said. “I’m not letting Egg-head and Spike get hurt.” She hopped up. “So, where do I get suited up?”

“What makes yah think yer goin with them?” Applejack asked. “Ah ain’t just gonna let yah go into some deadly battle.”

Einuli was quiet, typing something into his wrist device while they began to bicker. “If you want to see what we’re up against, and what you’ll need on to get the job done…” He grabbed them both by the wrists, teleporting them to the Armory, where Twilight was getting her new suit of armor on, a sawed-off shotgun and Electrically charged wand laying on the ground beside her.

“Nightbloom.”

“Serious. I received the scans, already making armor. What weapons do you two want?” Nightbloom stared at the two mares.

“W… what? Can’t we just…”

“You’d get shot, or torn to pieces without armor. And you’d be better off with weapons augmenting your natural abilities.” Einuli stated.

Dash and Applejack glanced to each other.

“It’ll be dangerous. There’s not just floran aboard the ship, there’s their test subjects, and created abominations that have no feelings or remorse. They’re monsters.” Einuli stated. “There’s a high chance, if you try anything alone, you’ll die. And there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to recover your body. It might compromise the mission.”

“You two… really… really shouldn’t come.” Twilight said. “I’m an alicorn. I have enhanced magics… and I was the Element of Magic. I can cover myself with my own magics…”

“Look, Twilight… Celestia is our friend, and princess of Equestria, we can’t just let her stay there. And… you have even less experience than we do.” Rainbow Dash said. “At least I have training from the Wonderbolts… they are a military unit…”

“And it’s not like Ah haven’t been in a few scraps mahself.” Applejack nodded.

“It’s not that… these… Einuli, and his friends. They’re all militarily trained. They’ve been doing this for so much longer than any of us. Who knows how many fights they’ve been in.” Twilight said.

“Twilight… we can cover each other. Plus, we’ll stick with the group.” Rainbow Dash said.

“Annoyed. What weapons do you both want?” Nightbloom asked as he dropped the armor for the two mares, each a different suit, in front of them. “And here’s your armor.”

“What do you have?” Dash asked, picking up her armor. Nightbloom looked at Einuli as Applejack reached down and looked over her armor.

“Give Rainbow Dash an energy bow, and two daggers. Applejack… give her a hammer.” Einuli stated. “And a shotgun. Just incase.”

“Alright.” Nightbloom nodded, going over to the Replicators to produce their weapons.

“Why does she get a hammer?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“She’s slower. It’ll work more with her additional muscle mass and weight. That’ll give her more than enough force behind it, even without augmentations, to wield it effectively with little in the means of downsides. You’d work better with faster weapons, ones that’d be lighter and more maneuverable. It’d allow you to hit fast and fall back without any issues.” Einuli stated. “Any other questions? We have little time before we have to leave. We can’t leave her there for too long, lest they do something to her.”

“No… No, we’ll get ready.” Dash shook her head.

“Nightbloom, lead them to the docking bay once they’re suited up. I need to retrieve something.” Einuli said, teleporting himself away.
> Chapter 25: Admission
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Einuli had entered his biology lab. An area he spent a lot of time in when he was alone.

It looked just like any biological research lab, sterile, white, and scientific. There was one key difference from any others though, inside a largely empty cryogenic freezer, with a see-through front, were a few bright green feathers. The last thing he had of the last Avali he ever had contact with, Sithali. It was a grim reminder of his work, trying to desperately synthesize a cure to the biological agent the Floran Pirates had. From what he’d been able to deduce, he’d succeeded as laying under the feathers was a vial. “I’m going to complete my promise today. These Floran’s won’t hurt a single soul ever again.” He stated with a low growl, he withdrew the vial, loading it into his custom grenade launcher. This sample was one that could be made airborne. Weakening the abominations the Floran had created, it’d provide a great boon for them when they made it onboard.

He walked over to the synthesis table. Another few vials were in cryogenic storage system. He withdrew one, loading it into a nanite syringe. “Just in case.” He said, tucking it away in a place where it wouldn’t get destroyed unless he was. He took in a deep breath and left the lab, making his way to the shuttle they’d be taking to the Floran Ship.

“Alright, listen up. We’ve got one shot. Once we breach the ship itself, they’ll know. We have to scour the ship to locate where they’re holding Celestia. Our best bet is in the brig.” Dandy explained. “All of your helmets have copies of the plans. Now, if things go wrong, we are not to separate. There will be no ‘teams’ we are a single unit. If you leave the group, you’ll be considered MIA unless you can get back to us. We will not go looking for you. The longer we’re onboard their ship, the more dangerous it’ll become. I don’t want to risk anyone, especially not our target. Though…”

“If we can manage it, we’ll try to start a reactor meltdown. That’d be a best case scenario. It’d not only give us a means of escape, as they won’t want to lose their ship… but, it’ll also give us an opening to blow them to kingdom fucking come.” Oxoloc added. “And, I know that’s something all of us want to see.”

“Also, remember for the veterans, we have four newbies with us. Keep them locked down and safe.” Dandy stated. “Any questions before we get in the shuttle and head to the Floran Ship?”

“Why don’t we just teleport on?” Twilight asked.

“We aren’t on their frequency. And, the only way we can find their frequency is to board their ship. Now, if we can get that… not only can we get Celestia out, but we can teleport extra supplies in. Allowing us to actually either storm the bridge, or set off the reactors, thereby killing them all.” Dandy said. “If we can find their teleporter room, we’ll give Einuli cover so he can breach their systems. If not, don’t worry. We’ll just take Celestia back to the shuttle and get out.”

“And what if shit hits the fan?” Suzy asked.

“Then… well, we work with what we can. Depending on what could happen… we might have to find the teleporter room. Though, I doubt the Florans did much interior redesign. So, if the schematics we have are still accurate, it’ll just be a slog through hell to get to it from the brig.” Dandy said, “Now, let's not waste anymore time.” He boarded the shuttle, followed quickly by everyone else.

--------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile:

The others had gathered in the cockpit, Femati activating the helmet cams so they could watch what was going on from each perspective.

“Hey… Femati.” Starlight began.

“Yesss?” Femati asked.

“Would… it be possible to have this broadcasted onto Equestria? Maybe over television or some such?” Starlight asked. “It… might help turn a lot of ponies for you and your friends. Especially if they’re going in to rescue Celestia.

Femati was silent for a few moments. “I’ll try.” She responded, typing away at the console.

“Alright…” Starlight said.

The door slid open, surprising all of them as Luna walked in. “Where is everypony else?” She asked, barely giving the ponies inside a glance. The rest not even giving her any attention once they realized it was her.

“Ssscreen.” Femati stated, “I’m busssy.”

Luna looked up at the screen, surprised by both what she saw, and what she heard.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

In the Shuttle:

“So… uuh, what are the chances…” Dash began.

“If you’re worried about taking a life, than you shouldn’t have come.” Suzy stated. “The universe is deadly, cold, violent, uncaring, and chaotic. Life isn’t easy. You’ll have to fight to survive, and kill to live.”

“No. I’m not talking about that… I’m asking… what are the chances of us… well, not coming back?” Dash stated.

“High if we don’t work as a team. Medium if we do.” Dandy said. “Look. We’re going to try our damndest to get you four and Celestia back. Our lives our moot at this point, and… if only you five can get back. We’ll make sure that their ship can’t threaten your planet ever again.”

“Don’t worry about us. This is a day in our life at this point. Whether it’d be fighting Avian Kluex adherents…” Chotl said.

“Hylotl still stuck in the Floran Hylotl war. Those are always fun to come across…” Ayaka added.

“USCM… the xenophobic bastards…” Suzy growled.

“The Illuminate.” Einuli added.

“Novakid Outlaws.” Dandy said.

“Space Pirates…” Oxoloc said.

“Floran cannibals and hunters.” Chotl continued. “It’s a hellish place out here. Death is common, and friendships don’t last very long if you can’t protect each other.”

“But, if you can…” Suzy said.

“You become unshakable and death doesn’t seem so frightening. It’s just… the end.” Einuli said.

“But, as dark and hostile a place as it is.” Dandy said.

“You meet those that are willing to help, willing to let you in.” Ayaka continued.

“You meet wonderful and amazing races, learn things you never could’ve imagined…” Oxoloc sighed.

“See wondrous worlds you’d think were impossible.” Einuli said.

“Find ancient ruins, and be the first to explore them…” Chotl added.

“Discover lost technology, save others… be called a hero.” Suzy finished.

“There may be bad people out there. But, there’s always good ones who outweigh them. And if you search hard enough, you’ll find those who will fight right beside you, and make this cold dark void not feel so lonely.” Oxocol said.

“Staying on one planet may be safe… but it’s boring. Which is why we’ve taken up the mantel of nomads. Always moving, always searching, always in danger… It’s fun, you know?” Dandy laughed. “Just… another day on the job.”

Twilight, Dash, Applejack, and Spike were silent, looking between each other.

“We’d never force anyone to join us. Hell, we’d actively push you away from it. This life ain’t for the weak. If you don’t push past your limits, you’ll die.” Dandy said.

“But we’ll still offer it to anyone we deem…” Suzy started. “Fit… for it.”

“It’s difficult. You have to let go of the pretense of ‘peace’ and ‘harmony’. There are those out here that’d leave you for dead, simply because they can get away with it.” Oxocol said.

“Things are never what they seem out here. Everything can fall apart at a moment's notice.” Dandy said.

“And it has, several times.” Suzy nodded.

“Why are you telling us all of this?” Twilight asked.

“I think… it’s mainly to put me off from joining them.” Spike said with a sigh. “To be honest… It’s getting a little boring… just doing the same things for all of you girls day after day. I want a bit of change, something new every day… like it was back when we first got to Ponyville.” He went quiet for a few moments. “It just seemed like… it’d be an adventure. I’m going to outlive most of you… and I don’t want to have to really face that I guess… and if I’m out exploring the galaxy… I can come back home, and have something, anything to give in the way of help. Make things better. Be something more than just… an assistant. Sure. Suzy and Femanti treated me like a student. But they were teaching me something. Showing me what I was capable of with the right things, what I could become if I just… pushed for it.” He looked up at Twilight. “I feel left out most of the time, being a second to everything. But, here… they welcomed me instantly, I’ve learned so much about each of them and what they’ve done in the past few days. It… started a fire… and it just won’t go out.”

“Spike… it’s your choice. I won’t tell you to stay.” Twilight said. “I… Don’t want you to though… you’re my brother now. Nothing can replace you. But, I don’t want you to be unhappy. And if you’re unhappy here… then… there’s not much I can do, is there?”

“I… just don’t…” Spike muttered.

“Spike. You’re your own dragon. Nopony else can tell you what to do. If you want to go out and explore the galaxy, then join them. Just… come back to visit us every now and again, alright?” Dash asked.

“I wouldn’t dream of not coming back. Equestria’s my home.” Spike said. “But… I’d also like it even more if… I dunno, you all came along too… it’d be fun again. Going on adventures. Seeing something new every day…”

“It does sound fun…” Dash nodded. “Though… that’s just the best parts of it…”

“We’re nearly there, everyone brace yourselves for the breach! We’re going to be entering in through the hold!” Dandy said, everyone on board the ship bracing for the coming impact.

--------------------------------------------------------------

On the Dome:

Everyone there was silent after hearing the conversation taking place.

“Spikey… wants to leave?” Rarity finally spoke.

“Heh… kid wantsss to join ussss…” Femati muttered. “Honessstly… Ssseeing him in action… without being held back. He’d make a great sssoldier…”

“What have you done to him?” Rarity growled.

Femati turned to face her. “Taught him what I know. Ssssuzy also helped train him. We didn’t sssee anything wrong with ssshowing him a few things. And he’sss a natural learner.” The floran stated. “He might be a new blood, but I’d trussst him with my life already.”

“He doesn’t need to be a fighter! Don’t try to change him!” Rarity snapped.

“You’re lisstening to him. It wasss hissss choice. We didn’t force him into training. He wanted to join in, and we helped him figure thingsss out.” Femati stated firmly. “Are you jussst trying to keep him as one thing, never letting him become what he wantsss? That’sss a bit… wrong, don’t you think?”

Rarity fell silent.

“He… has been seeming disinterested recently…” Fluttershy said quietly.

“I think it’d be great for him.” Pinkie said. “I mean… if he ever wants to get out of it, you guys wouldn’t keep him on your ship would you?”

“No. We’d bring him back here.” Femati shook her head.

“Well… I don’t see a problem with it.” Starlight said.

Luna had quietly sat down in the back, beginning to deeply mull over everything that’d happened recently. They were going on a rescue mission for Celestia… they planned… if they needed to, to sacrifice their lives to protect Spike, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Celestia… they’d do that despite how Luna had treated Einuli.

“Oh boy… they battle’sss about to begin… if you’re ssssqueamish, or don’t like blood… you’d best leave. I’ll come get you when they have Celestia and are returning.”

“I’ll… just wait for that…” Fluttershy mumbled, standing up and walking out.

“So… will I.” Rarity nodded, walking out with Fluttershy.

Pinkie also stood up and left without a word.

Now only Starlight, Luna, and Femati were in the cockpit. Femati had sent the CMC back to the surface at the first signs of trouble, despite their protests.

“I hope Celestia’s unharmed… and I hope they return safely…” Luna mumbled quietly. “All of them…”
> Chapter 26: Trapped
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With a blast, the shuttle tore open the hold of the USCM Cruiser. The short range teleporter on board allowed them all to enter directly into it.

“Alright, helmet lights on!” Dandy said, everyone flicking on their lights. Though, immediately they wished they hadn’t.

Despite it being in floran control for a long time, they didn’t take much to cleaning it up. There were bodies (now skeletons in ragged uniforms or broken armor) hanging from vines, roots holding the frail bones together for a rather gruesome sight. They were glad they didn’t get here when they were still covered in flesh… the thought of how these soldiers died was chilling. “Alright… we need to move fast, they’ll know we’re here. And they’re already probably preparing for us.” Dandy motioned them to follow. “Chotl, Ayaka take point. Suzy, Spike you two are covering our asses. Einuli, you take mid position, make sure we don’t get snuck up on. Your ears will be our biggest boon here. Alert us if you hear anything. Twilight, Oxoloc, you make sure we get support if we’re engaged, I want energy blasts and magic to wipe the floor with these fools. Applejack, you keep up pace with the pointmen. Rainbow Dash, you take your pickings when they come up.”

“What about you?” Dash questioned.

“I’ll do what I do best and run distraction. I am a glowing humanoid shaped gas creature.” Dandy chuckled. “I’ll make sure Einuli keeps covered.”

Everyone was immediately in position. The four newbies immediately noticing the squad symbols in their HUD. “Watch the vitals Einuli, if anyone gets hurt, it’s your job to bring them right the fuck back up.”

“Got it.” Einuli said, raising his hunting spear.

“Now, everyone move out!” Dandy motioned with his hand, all of them diving head long into the dark and claustrophobic ship.

“So, Suzy, we got the bet still going?” Chotl asked.

“Shit, you think you’re going to win? Damn, you’re getting cocky.” Suzy replied. “But, sure. If you win, first round’s on me.”

“Great! And just know I’m gonna drink you fucking dry.” Chotl chuckled.

“What bet do you two have going?” Twilight asked.

“Whoever scores the least confirmed kills has to buy the first round.” Chotl responded.

“That’s… a little cruel…” Twilight murmured.

“We only do it in situations like this. We’re deep in enemy territory… cut off from support… with little chance of survival. Why not have a little fun before we die?” Chotl asked.

“That’s just…” Twilight mumbled, not really knowing what she could say.

“Wow…” Dash muttered quietly.

“Alert, two enemies down the coming right hallway.” Einuli spoke up.

Chotl immediately snapped to the hallway, throwing some sort of device down the hallway.

“WATCH OUT! SAWBL-” The screech was cut off by the sound of whirring metal cutting through what sounded like wood and then slamming into metal.

“Two down.” Chotl said. “Your move.” He laughed, the two blades he threw returning to him after detaching from the wall. Now they saw he had two sawblades in hand.

“What the hell are those?” Dash asked.

“Modified chakram. They return thanks to a nano-tracking system. Easy to use, and hard to dodge in a small hallway. Particularly effective in any enclosed space.” Chotl explained. “Deadly, and near silent until they collide with walls, or bodies.”

“Those are pretty damn wicked…” Dash said quietly.

“Hey, you think these are bad, try a shotgun at close range. Fine red mist.” Chotl said. “Or in this case green…”

“Don’t take this as us enjoying this.” Suzy said. “It’s just… how we cope with how violent it is. It helps us stay a bit more sane.”

Spike was the most silent of the group, focusing on his given task beside Suzy. “Anything else coming?” He finally spoke.

“No, we’re clear for now, move.” Einuli said, the group moving through the hallways.

They noticed, besides the initial patrol it was oddly silent.

“This isn’t a good sign…” Dandy said. “Keep an eye out, and watch any vents…”

“Yeah… it’s far too silent. Femati, are you picking up an radio chatter?” Einuli asked.

“No, nothing.” Femati’s voice rung out in their ears. “It’s like they knew we’d be c-”

She was cut off as behind them they heard a loud explosion. Immediately something red lit up in all of their huds.

“Shit! They took out the ship! Fuck… fuck fuck…” Dandy swore.

“W… we’re stuck here?” Dash muttered.

“N-”

“Ayaka, watch out, something was moving in the darkness to your left!” Starlight’s voice lit up their ears. Ayaka instantly drew her blade out.

Immediately a tentacle shot out at her, the Hyltol defended herself, slashing it apart.

“Move out! We need to grab Celestia and get to the teleporters, we need to get a way out!” Dandy ordered. The group rushing down the hallway as they heard shouts and gunfire behind them.

Spike and Suzy opened fire in turn, firing straight down the hall as they moved deeper into the plant infested ship.

They already felt like they were being led into a trap, but still the pushed on, determined to get Celestia out of there.

They approached the door to the brig, before they could breach it with explosives, Applejack’s new hammer swung right into it, shattering it on contact. They quickly entered the room, finding Celestia in one of the cells, just barely coming to as they arrived.

“W… what?” Celestia mumbled.

“Einuli, check her for any signs of infection.” Dandy ordered. “Spike, Suzy, Chotl cover the door. Oxoloc, Ayaka map out a way to the teleporter room.”

“What about us?” Twilight asked, motioning to Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

“Stay alive.” Dandy stated. “Because they won’t let us out of here with her.”

Einuli was kneeling beside Celestia, scanning her body over. She was in the remains of armor that had been torn apart when she was captured.

“What did you intend to do? Fight a full group of space pirates on your own?” Einuli asked.

“I… I intend to shut them down…” Celestia muttered quietly. “T-they jabbed me with something before I passed out… I don’t… don’t know what it was.”

“Don’t worry… I have just the thing for this.” Einuli said, reaching into his overcoat, pulling out a syringe. “This will sting a little.” He said, jabbing it into her neck. Celestia completely froze up.

“N… NN…” She could barely get out.

“Applejack, Dash, you two will need to carry her.” Einuli said as Celestia once again passed out, the nanites already working to spread the cure through her body.

“Got it.” The two mares nodded, both hefting Celestia up.

“What are you going to do now?” Twilight asked.

Einuli shouldered his grenade launcher. “Make sure we survive this hell hole. We’ve got movement in the vents. And I wouldn’t doubt that the captain is releasing the abominations now. We’ve just become a major threat.”

“WE’VE GOT INCOMING HOSTILES!” Suzy shouted, now firing down the hall with Spike.

“What the fuck are those things?” Spike questioned.

“Humans, Hyltol, Avains… so many different things. But now, they’re just abominations. And the best thing we can do, is put them down.” Dandy said stepping between the two already shooting down the hall. “Get ready…”

“We have a plan!” Ayaka said.

“Everyone else ready?” Dandy asked.

“Let’s go.” Twilight nodded, putting up a shield around them, giving them a temporary respite as the abominations were forced backwards into the darkness.
> Chapter 27: Hard Facts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back In The Dome:

“I… I-is it all broadcasting?” Starlight could barely choke out.

“Yep… every word, every sssight.” Femati nodded. “It’s… going to be a hell of a time sssaying we’re bad now.”

“Gods… if anypony is stupid enough to call you such… I’m pretty sure they’ll be run out of any towns they’re in.” Starlight muttered.

“How… how soon do you think they’ll be back?” Luna asked.

“Wrong quessstion.” Femati stated, glancing back towards Luna. “There’sss a high probability they won’t come back.” She sighed, “They’re sssupporting four newbiesss. And both Nightbloom and I aren’t with them. They’re lacking ssseriousss manpower. Unlessss sssome of them have got an ace in their sssleeve… It’ll just be Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dasssh, and Celessstia that return. The othersss will gladly give their livesss to ensssure that.”

“Then… what about you and Nightbloom?” Starlight asked.

“I’ll evacuate you all from the ship. Leave Nightbloom and his stuff down with you guysss… and make sure thossse fuckersss don’t leave thisss sssysstem.” Femati said, typing a few things onto the console. “You’ll all get a hell of a ssshow.”

The worst part is she sounded serious.

“Wait… y-you’re going to…”

“Yep.” Femati nodded.

“And just abandon Nightbl-”

“He’ll sssurvive. He’ll fit much better in with your sssociety. Plussss, you could alwaysss ussse a good sssmith, right?” Femati joked. “I’m a sssoldier. Your world is at peace. I’d just bog you all down.”

“No yo-”

“Look. Thossse idiotsss are my family. If they die. I go out with them. Plain and sssimple.” Femati stated. “You’ll have Celessstia returned to you safely. And, the piratessss will be dead. Win-win. Right?”

“That’s… not…” Luna muttered.

“You live in your own little world. It’sss different out here. You live and die by your friends and family… and all of us are running from sssomething. Me? I’m trying to run from a group of Floransss that want me more than dead. Chotl, and Oxocol? They’re running from the Kluex adherents. Sssuzy? Ssshe lost everything when Earth was consssumed. Dandy owesss money to the wrong people, and had to leave. Einuli… well, you already know hisss ssstory.” She trailed off for a moment. “We’ve got thingsss we hide. Ssso don’t go telling any of usss what we are, or aren’t. It’ll end up with you sssuffering becaussse of it.”

“I learned that the hard way…” Luna sighed quietly.

“I’m sure you did.” Starlight scoffed quietly. “Femati… if they reach the teleporters… what are their chances of survival?”

“Eighty.” Femati said. “That’sss if they can hold off an entire ship full of mutantsss and Floran who’d want to tear into ssssomething flessshy.” She smirked. “I’ve ssseen ssstupider ssshit happen to ussss.” She laughed. “Ssso ssscratch that eighty, and make it ninety.”

“Well… if stupid shit happens to you all the time, I can’t wait to see what abomination of reality gets thrown at them…”

“They’ll get lossst and find the Bridge. I mean… hey if they do, they can not only hack the teleportersss but set off the core asss well! Win-win for usss! Plusss it’ll be easier to de-” Femati paused, turning the mic to herself. “Guysss, don’t go to the Teleportersss, fight your way to the Bridge. They won’t expect it. They’ll probably be securing the teleportersss and it’d be sssuicide to russsh them.”

The radio was silent. “Change of plans, we’re taking the bridge.” Dandy’s voice was heard. “Prepare to move out!”

“Ninety five now.”
> Chapter 28: Adrift
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the Battlecruiser:

“Wait… we’re going to head deeper into the ship?” Twilight scoffed. “That's SUICIDE!”

“It's our best option. They're expecting us to go to the teleporters. Not the bridge.” Dandy stated. “If you want to charge a fortified position be my fucking guest. I'm not risking any of you for something so damn stupid!”

Twilight fell silent.

“The teleporters are connected to the bridge on this class of cruiser. It allows for technicians to easily keep their post, and shift forces around.” Suzy said. “This is a much older class of ship.”

“So… what about the more modern ones?” Twilight asked.

“Be glad this isn’t a more modern one. Turrets would have torn us to shreds.” Suzy said quietly. “Hell, you’d have probably been grabbed by one of the fucking idiots and…” She shivered. “Just be glad this isn’t under USCM control. I mean… yeah these Florans are horrible, genocidal even. But, they didn’t invade your planet and claim you all as scum. Then just… slaughtered everything.”

“W…”

“They’re almost all Xenophobic bastards.” Dandy said. “Suzy, and… when her squad were still with us…”

“Did they die?” Dash asked.

“No. They went home. To their colonies to defend them. Just like the USCM should be doing. Not… barricading themselves in bunkers, in their ships… on entire planets… turning the colonies to slaves…” Suzy shook her head. “Look, things aren’t peachy fucking keen out here. They’re horrible. We have to make our own good. Do things that others will like, make sure those few good souls out here can survive.”

“Enough talk! We don’t have time for this! Let's get to the bridge!” Spike said. “If we make it out you all can talk about this stuff, I just want to live!”

“Alright, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, keep the target in the center of our group. We’ll make sure they don’t make it to you.” Dandy ordered.

“Got it.” The two mares nodded. The group began to head out, the shield spell Twilight had put up falling apart the moment they left. Suzy and Spike rapidly sprayed into the first horde of abominations, only to start scoring kills when a small blinking orb sailed back.

“Shit man, you didn’t say it was silent when I asked you about it!” Dandy laughed, the grenade that had been launched exploded into a cloud of nanites that instantly latched onto the abominations, eating away at the excess plant growth allowing them to actually be hurt.

“The grenades are energy based, they’re created via my own reserves. It’s silent, inefficient, but it makes a hell of a punch.” Einuli growled, firing a napalm grenade further back into the hallway, instantly being alerted to Floran screams and shouts as they were ignited.

Continuing through the halls, they cut, sawed, gunned, and blew their way through weaker, much older abominations. It was a stark contrast to the initial force that they were hit with.

“Something’s wrong…” Dandy muttered.

“The older abominations are probably a lot more numerous… the crew that they didn’t kill right away.” Suzy offered. “Why waste good, strong creatures when they can bury us under a pile of bodies?”

“Good point… but I still don’t like it.” Dandy said.

“Neither do I.” Oxocol said. “They didn’t trap the room Celestia was in. And they quickly blew our shuttle up. They have something planned.”

“Let’s make sure they don’t get that plan off the ground, shall we?” Suzy said, the group managing to make it to the bridge doorway. The door itself was sealed.

“Oxoloc, you get the door open. We’ll cover you.” Dandy ordered, the main group taking up a semi circle position, Akaya, Einuli, and Chotl in the front. Suzy and Spike looking over the front melee group, and then Twilight and Dandy left behind the two wielding assault weapons. “Word of advice. Don’t think about what you’re doing here. Just do. Don’t consider them living creatures. They’re enemies now. It’s us or them. And if they overrun us, it’s your planet next.” Dandy said to Twilight. “The same goes for you two.” He glanced back to Rainbow Dash and Applejack who were in position to protect Celestia. “You might be disgusted with killing, considering it to be a crime, a sin, or something of the like. You have to throw that feeling away. They don’t care for your lives. They’ll turn you into one of those things, or eat you, if they even capture you. They won’t deal with trades, or ransoms. Why do that when they can wipe out your planet, and then just take what they want? Make sure they don’t get that chance. Every single creature we kill before we die, if we die, is one less they have to attack your home with. And a greater chance there will be survivors.”

The three mares were silent, unsure of what they could even say.

“It’s something we’ve all had to get over.” Dandy turned to look down the hall. They could hear the crackling of flames in the distance die down, followed by screeches and unholy sounds. “Everyone get ready. Here they come…”

Einuli, Chotl, and Ayaka hoisted up their longer reaching weapons, preparing to impale or stab whatever got too close.

Suzy and Spike however had plans to not let anything that close, both already firing the second they thought something was coming down the hall.

Thankfully, they didn’t have to worry much about ammunition, nanites rapidly producing it for them, but they did have to keep an eye on their energy reserves, if that ran out, they’d be forced to use melee weapons.

They could hear the sickening sound of bullets hitting flesh or tearing through what sounded like bark. It was a horrendous symphony.

Einuili heard something scuttling above them and immedietly dropped his spear, he aimed towards the source and fired an energy blast.

The strange creature screeched, the sound it made causing Einuli to freeze up completely. The body dropped down behind him. But, he didn’t even need to look at what it was.

“What’s wrong?” Chotl asked, glancing quickly to the frozen raptor.

“N… nothing.” Einuli muttered, picking his weapon back up. “Just… one more packmate sent to rest.” He muttered. “No one gets left behind…”

Twilight looked down, she nearly gagged at the sight of the creature. It was a twisted visage of plant and feathers. Though, immediately she could recognize what it used to be. Though she didn’t know its’ name, or what it did. Only that it was one of Einuli’s pack mates. “Gods…” She muttered, glancing up for the first time she used the wand given to her by Nightbloom. Now, she was no stranger to magic… being the Element of Magic in the past, and basically the Princess of Magic (Though her official title was that of Friendship…) but this definitely had a technological twinge to it. A simple wave of the wand and a bolt of energy sailed down the hallway, lighting up the carnage in a green glow. It made contact with one of the abominations, this one armored in something similar to the skeletons they saw in the hold. At first, all it did was cause it to glow green, making everything completely visible.

Now, that gave Suzy and Spike more targets to aim for, though they both avoided hitting the glowing creature for some reason.

“This is us-” Twilight was cut off as the creature exploded brilliantly. A gory mess of chlorophyll and blood splattering over everything around it. Thankfully it seemed to be far enough back that they didn’t have to worry about the bloody after effects. Several more creatures, at least those without any armor, immediately dropped dead, the radiation rapidly destroying their cells. The others were left much slower than before, some attacking creatures nearby them, causing a brief relapse in the fight as the hall was blocked up with the creatures tearing at each other.

“Holy shit…” Rainbow Dash muttered.

“Oxoloc, how’s the door coming along?” Dandy glanced back.

“Almost… got it…” The avain muttered, the door now sliding open as he connected two more wires. “Go! We’re in!”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack immediately hauled Celestia into the bridge, setting her down in one of the chairs. Everyone else followed, with Suzy and Spike bringing up the rear. The two of them got to work tearing what they could from the ground and piling it in front of the door, creating a makeshift barricade and some extra cover.

Both Oxoloc and Chotl got to work trying to break into the systems of the ship.

“Alright… we’ve got at most two more minutes of peace before all hell breaks loose.” Dandy said. “Make any last prayers to any gods you believe in. We’re going to need as much help as possible.” He said half-jokingly.

“It won’t help.” An unknown voice said over the intercom.

“What th…” Twilight muttered.

“We already have you sssurounded. Or did you forget you’re on our ssship? Did you honestly think we wouldn’t try to crack into your communicationsss?” The voice chuckled. “Foolsss. It’s honessstly too late. We’ve ssshut down the teleportersss… if you want them back on…”

“Shit…” Dandy muttered. That was before he saw Einuli ditch most of his gear, well except for his armor and energy blasters. “W…”

Einuli shushed him.

“Ssshit they do have access to our commsss! But thanks to the broadcast… the visssualsss are way too ssscrambled for them to see!” Femati’s voice cracked through their speakers.

“My, quite the intelligent Floran, aren’t you… Femati’sss your name, correct?” The voice asked. “Too bad you’re with them… sssomeone like you would do well with usss.” He laughed. “But, the visssualsss mean nothing. We know all of your plansss…”

The group watched Einuli crawl into one of the large vents on the ship, vanishing completely from their radars with in a few moments. The raptor was fast, and they knew they’d miss him.

“If you want to leave this ssship with your creature… and your livesss. You’ll turn over the genetic misssfit with you. He’sss worth quite a bit to one of our… clientssss.” The voice said. “What do you sssay?”

“We’d rather die than turn anypony over to you beasts.” Twilight growled. “We’ll kill every last one of you!”

“Oooh, fiesssty. I’ll enjoy breaking you… we might not even convert you…” The voice laughed. “Fine. We’ll sssee how you do against our true forcesss.” The ship’s communication systems turned off with that.

Twilight threw her want to Dash. “Use that.” She stated as she leaned down and picked up the grenade launched Einuli left behind. She may not have known how to use it. But she’d be sure to figure it out fast. “We’ve got a final stand to make.”

Dash looked down at the wand before an sawed off shotgun was thrown at her too. “Make sure to kill at least twenty before you go down.” Twilight growled. “We’ve got some covering to do.”

The three mares took up positions, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were relatively close behind the main barricade, one at Spike’s side, and the other at Suzy’s.

Dandy took up cover behind one of the consoles, throwing down some devices that created concrete road blocks, giving the two Avians at the main consoles cover as well.

Ayaka took up her own position, now hoisting up her bow, which until now had gone unnoticed thanks to its’ size. But the second she drew the string back, an energy arrow appeared, the arrow glowing a brilliant red.

“Come hell or high water…” Dandy said, clicking the hammers back on his revolvers, the sounds of angry monsters approaching rapidly.
> Chapter 29: Peril
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the Dome:

The few gathered in the cockpit were at an utter loss for words. The battle taking place in front of them was brutal, and it was only made worse by the fact that Oxoloc and Chotl had abandoned trying to connect to the teleporters after they made the grim discovery of the teleporters being disconnected.

There was no hope for escape. The Dome was too far from the battleship to make a difference. The engines were still down… even the Avenged was currently under maintenance. They could in theory take it there… but it’d probably be too late by the time they made it.

“It’sss… over…” Femati muttered.

“KEEP FIRING! DON’T GIVE UP!” Dandy’s voice echoed. He was trying desperetly to hold the crew together even in the worst situation.

To make matters worse Einuli had simply abandoned them, crawling through the vents to god knows where.

“It’s hopeless… we’re all going to die aren’t we?” Starlight muttered quietly.

That was until the screen of the ship, and there by all the visual feeds popped up with one message. ‘I’m nearly at the teleporters.’

All of those in the cockpit immediately perked up. “E… Einuli…” Femati muttered.

“Wait… how can he conta…” Luna was cut off.

“The bastard’sss usssing a hand held comm device… He mussst be usssing hisss own ssscrambling sssyssstem!” Femati said. “He’sss too fucking sssmart for hisss own good sssometimes!”

‘I’ll be able to restart the teleporters. Tell them to evacuate when I give the signal.’

Famati typed back, ‘What about you?’

‘I’m going to set off the reactors. I won’t be able to make it back here from the reactor rooms. They’ll be coming after me the moment they realize what I’m doing.’ He sent back. ‘Goodbye.’

Starlight and Femati were blinded temporarily by a flash of magic. Luna vanishing completely from the room.

“Oh gods…” Starlight muttered.

“We’ll… Misss you buddy.” Femati muttered. “Ssso much.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back on the enemy ship:

Einuli climbed out of the ventilation shaft, silently dropping to the floor a few yards away from the teleporter hub. He took in a deep breath, two guards were nearby, though they appeared to not be paying attention, which was good for him. He raised his hands up, firing off two quick and silent energy blasts, killing both guards without so much as a sound. He quickly moved, trying his best to stay silent, making it to the doorway they were guarding. It was clear, that despite being violent and strong enough to take over the ship, they weren’t all too intelligent during a battle. The door wasn’t locked, and slid open when he approached.

He slipped inside, glancing around for a sign of anyone else inside. So far the coast was clear. He made it to one of the consoles, attaching a cable from one of his wrists to it. He made sure to constantly check his surroundings, though his ears did most of the work.

Within a few moments he was able to crack through the relatively weak security system the had in place.

‘It’s ready. Tell them to get out.’ He typed into his wrist console.

‘Got it. Thank you Einuli. - Starlight’ Was the reply.

“I told you I wouldn’t let any harm come to your planet.” Einuli said quietly, disconnecting from the console.

Immedietly after he heard the sound of running coming from down the hall.

“He’sss in the teleporter room! Sssecure him!” One floran shouted.

Einuli readied himself. He was now alone on this ship, and he could guess they knew where he was going next if he didn’t teleport out.

So he gave them a run for their money, firing a blast at the teleporter core, destroying it beyond repair.

Immediately alarms went off in the ship, ancient red lights coming to life, bathing all the hallways in a sickly red glow.

Now, the florans in the dark were lit up, and Einuli fired at them, the energy blasts tearing right through the pirates.

“Come at me bastards… I’m taking us all down.” Einuli growled, rushing out into the hallway.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile:

Luna teleported herself onto the Floran Ship. Though, her distance from the Moon made her feel much weaker. She knew, if she didn’t waste much magic there might be enough energy left for her to get both her and Einuli out of there… though how close they’d end up to the Moon, or Equus… she couldn’t say.

Within moments she heard the sounds of a fight, gunshots going off, followed by two loud thuds. She rushed towards the source and nearly collided with Einuli, who fully appeared to be in attack mode.

“The fuck?” Einuli growled glaring angrily at Luna. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to get you out once you set off the reactors.” Luna stated.

“And what makes you think you can help? We’d be no where close to the teleporters…” Einuli retorted. “Ah fuck it… I can’t be wasting this much time on you.” He pushed past her, running down the hallway, heading towards where his sensors were picking up the reactors to be.

Luna chased after him, silence not really being key for her.

The two made it quickly to the reactors, only to be greeted by one, much larger floran who was definetly the one in charge. He had several guards around him, all with their weapons trained at the raptor.

“Look what we have here.” The floran leader said, “The misssfit comesss right to usss. Planning on playing hero are we?”

“You won’t stop me.” Einuli barred his teeth.

“Oh, but we have you outnumbered… I don’t think your going anywhere. Now, jussst sssurender and we can dissscusss this planet’sss fate… If you do it without hesitation, or any more of a fight… we might jusss-” The floran leader was cut off as three of his guards were lifted up into the air by Luna’s magic, the now very angry alicorn coming into full view. The floran leader backed up, the last three of his men coming to cover him.

Before they could fire however Einuli charged. The raptor was a predator. At least his species was, and that came with one major thing besides speed…

He fired two bolts at the guards to the side, tackling the one in the middle.

Luna’s magic crushed the guards in her aura, dropping their broken bodies to the ground.

Einuli tore into the guard he tackled, ripping and tearing into the floran with ease. His armor barely managed to stop the augmented predator from ending his life.

The floran captain took the opportunity to tackle Einuli, before Luna could react she was attacked from the side, another guard coming right at her.

“You think you’ve won?” The captain growled. “I’ll return your body to them half-eaten… I won’t let a sssingle creature sssurvive on that pathetic planet!”

Einuli growled right back, fighting against the Floran’s own augmented strength.

Luna was having her own trouble, though that was simply because the floran attacking her simply didn’t let up.

“You won’t stop me…” Einuli growled. Immediately after that the sound of something letting out a lot of steam was heard. The blaster on Einuli’s left wrist was rapidly overheating, due inpart to Einuli purposefully damaging the heat sink by slamming it hard against the ground. “Get fucked you pile of shit.”

The floran captain attempted to escape, only to have the overheating wrist blaster slammed into his face, Einuli barely moving the rest of his body away in time before it exploded.

A mixture of Einuli and the floran’s blood splattered over the room. Einuli’s arm was torn apart by the shrapnel and due to the blast. But somehow, he clung to consciousness.

And like a warrior, running solely on a second wind, he rose up. The badly injured raptor stumbled over to the console connected to the reactor. Using his one remaining hand, he caused the reactors to dump their coolant.

The floran who had been wrestling with Luna was shaken to the very core by the sight of what he could only assume was a god given flesh -that being the Avali who had just survived a searing hot energy blaster being on his body, and the direct explosion it caused. “W… what a-are you…” He muttered.

Einuli slumped down, unable to stand any longer.

Luna took the opportunity to slam the Floran’s head against the wall, knocking him out.

She ran over to Einuli and scooped him up. He was breathing heavily and he appeared to be barely conscious.

Luna was utterly silent, she couldn’t believe her eyes, let alone what she had once thought.

“I-I told you… I’d p-protect…”

“Shh… Shh, you won’t have to say that… I’ll get you to safety.” Luna whispered, shushing him. “Now… how are we going to get out of this?”

“T… The v-vehicle… s-storage… e-even if… th-they’re old… i-it should survive a small en-enough explosion t-to launch us i-into space… a-and away from the ship…” Einuli mumbled.

Luna could feel the chilling temperature of his blood on her arm. If she didn’t move fast… he wouldn’t make it to the vehicle… let alone to any form of help.

“Alright…” Luna gave him a reassuring smile. “It… shouldn’t be hard to find.” She let out a small sigh, deep inside, she had lost all hope in leaving this ship alive. She knew nothing about it… at least Twilight, Celestia, and Cadance would be able to carry on without her.

She carried the injured raptor out, hoping she’d easily find this something they could at least survive in. Regardless of their dwindling time and chances… For her, she’d hope this would make up for what she said and did back in Equestria, at least… once they realized what she did.
> Chapter 30: The End.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In The Dome Moments before Einuli ejected the Battleship’s reactor coolant:

The group who had held up in the bridge of the battleship were unceremoniously dumped onto the floor of the armory. At first they were all stunned, quiet even, unsure of what had just happened. Well… except for Oxoloc who had teleported them out. He was looking around for someone.

“Ox, what’s wrong… all of us are here.” Dandy said quietly. “Except Einuli…” He sighed.

“That’s the thing… he was right by the teleporter cor-” Oxoloc was cut off as Starlight teleported down, she looked both distressed and mournful.

“Twilight did you detect Luna’s magic at all?” Starlight asked quickly.

“No… wh- Wait…”

“Damn it! She went after Einuli then! They’re both going to die!” Starlight just collapsed, unable to handle the thought of both of them dying in one sweep.

“Oh gods…” Twilight muttered.

“DAMN IT!” Dandy threw his helmet down, smashing the visor and light. “DAMN IT ALL!”

Just as that happened several alarms began to go off, the glow from the lights wasn’t red however…

“What the hell, how did something happen to the chaos inhibitor?” Oxoloc and Chotl said simultaneously, both getting up at the sight of the glowing green lights.

“Because. I need as much chaotic energy as possible to pull this stupidity out of my ass.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile:

Luna hauled Einuli into the vehicle storage. Inside there were old tanks and APC’s.

“T-tank… B-big cannon…” Was all Einuli could mutter out. He was losing blood fast at this point. At least… she could get his body back for his friends to bury…

She bit back tears, carrying the dying Avali to a tank. The old vehicle was hard to open, especially since she didn’t want to risk setting Einuli down. Her magic wretched the hatch open. She climbed in, setting Einuli down in the seat beside her. Surprisingly the old tank still had a bit of power left after she figured out how to turn it on.

“C… close…” Einuli muttered.

She reached up and closed the hatch, thankfully once it closed the compartment pressurized. She saw something as the lights kicked on, a medical kit!

She opened it up quickly and did what little she could to staunch the bleeding from Einuli’s missing hand and torn up arm.

“H-hope there’s ammo… F-fire… wall…” Einuli mumbled. “P-pressure s-should f-fire us o-out to space…”

Luna nodded, quickly taking up the controls, thankfully she was able to figure out how to fire, blowing a massive hole in the wall.

The pressure did miraculously pull them out, as the ship’s automatic systems slammed the door to the storage shut. But, it didn’t take them very far, very fast. Now Luna channeled as much energy as she had left, trying to teleport them closer to Equus.

She underestimated how far she could get them. Only going far enough away from the ship for it to not matter when it exploded. But she was left utterly drained, “G-gods… no… w-we’re both g-going to die…”

“I-I’m sorry…” Einuli muttered quietly.

“Don’t be…” Luna smiled weakly. “Y-you tried your hardest… we both did now…”

“I c-couldn’t… save you…” Einuli passed out, his head hitting the controls in front of him.

Luna couldn’t hold back tears as she too collapsed. She was giving up now, it was… truly pointless. At least though… they’d know she tried. Know… she wanted to make up for everything.

The reactors exploded, and it was the final thing she saw before blacking out. Equus was rendered safe and protected once again thanks to the little raptor that gave his life for a planet that cared so little for him…

Unbeknownst to them, the laws of physics had been bent quite a bit…
> Chapter 31: The Razor's Edge
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ten hours after the rescue:

Some of the greatest doctors and scientists had been gathered in the Dome’s medical bay. All of them tending to the gravely injured Avali. They had managed to synthesize a compound that’d stabilize his body and prevent him from dying due to the blood loss. Though they ran into a serious problem, they had no replacement for his blood. It being ammonia based, it was impossible to find something similar in Equestria. They just had to hope that like the AI had been saying, the Nanites would begin to make more blood for him after he was guaranteed to survive.

It had been nearly ten hours now since Discord rescued the two unconscious beings from the depths of space, the two managing thanks in part due to the release of massive amounts of chaotic energy, survived in a tank. Discord though had no time to joke around with them, wanting to make sure they both survived.

It had been ten long hours of fighting to keep the avali alive, one who was now seen as a hero across all of Equestria for his near sacrifice to make sure Celestia and the rescue team got out alive.

Thanks to Discord’s intervention Luna was also recovering, though much faster then the nearly dead raptor. The doctors were working in shifts, keeping a constant vigil over Einuli. The scientists were working in his lab to attempt to make some sort of blood substitute for him.

Sure, they tried to get Discord to heal Einuli. But he couldn’t, not for a lack of trying though. His powers didn’t readily work on beings not fully integrated with Equestria’s magics. It was a struggle for survival for the avali.

It was the few minutes in between a change of shifts that all of the mares were gathered in the room. Luna, who was still in a bit of pain, her head still throbbing due to the magical exertion. She never desired to leave Equus, now more than ever. But she was thankful she had… otherwise Einuli would have been dead, and not just hanging on the cusp of life. At least now he had the chance of survival.

“It’s horrible to see him like this…” Twilight mumbled.

“To think… he did this for us.” Rainbow Dash said. “And now look… all of Equestria sees him, and all of us as heroes.”

“He deserves that title…” Luna sighed. “He was willing to give his life just to make sure all of Equus survived…” She put her head in her hands. “I was so wrong about him… and now, I just… I…”


“Luna, stop. You made sure he made it here. If it weren’t for your attempt to get away… Discord never would have been able get to you both. He just instigated finding you both. You saved Einuli.” Celestia stated.

Luna sighed quietly.

“The doctors are trying their hardest to make sure he survives. There’s nothing we can do besides wait and hope.” Starlight stated.

“Hey… why don’t we just ask… I dunno… Discord to magic some blood into something ammonia based?” Dash offered quietly. There was silence all around.

“He can’t do things to creatures not fro-” Twilight cut herself off. “Dash, sometimes I envy the ideas of pure stupid you have. Without you, sometimes we’d all be fucked royally.” She hugged Dash. “I’ll go talk to him.”

“I’ll come too, I might be able to help convince him to help us.” Fluttershy said, the two mares leaving the room.

“My ideas are stupid?” Dash asked quietly.

“She’s only joking. And, I think more of she’s saying how they’re ideas she’d never be able to think of.” Celestia assured. “You’re an amazing mare, Dash.”

Dash smiled slightly, going to sit down beside the bed now, taking up position on the side of Einuli that still had a hand. “Thanks.” She said quietly, looking down at the avali.

After a few moments Twilight and Fluttershy re-entered the room. “Alright. He’ll see what he can do. But, he doesn’t want us to get our hopes up.” Twilight said.

“He’s currently in the lab trying to help a few of the scientists out.” Fluttershy added.

They noticed a slight shudder from Einuli, followed by him shifting a little bit. “Nnn…” He mumbled.

In a matter of moments his bed was surrounded. “Everypony remain calm. He’ll be weak and we don’t want to aggravate him, or stress him out.” Celestia said.

“Uuh…” Einuli groaned quietly, his eyes slowly beginning to open up. “W… what’s… the verdict?” He asked quietly, glancing tiredly around the room.

“You’re awake, so that’s a definite, you’ll be surviving.” Dash said, putting a hand on his chest.

“That’s… g-good.” Einuli relaxed a little, still seeming groggy. His gaze shifted down to his right arm, he seemed… unemotional over the loss of his hand, most of his wing, and the tearing up of his arm -all of it was bandaged and closed by now. “At least… w-we all made it out alive.” He sighed, looking back up at the room.

“Einuli…” Dash began.

“I’m… well I-I can’t say I’m fine… I’m clearly not.” He sighed. “It… it’s just I’m a little tired still…”

“With the amount of blood you lost… it’s a miracle you’re even alive.” Twilight said, “So, tired is good.”

“Can we get you anything?” Starlight asked.

“Could… I get something to eat, and something to drink?” Einuli asked.

“Of course!” Twilight nodded, her and Starlight leaving to get what he asked for.

Dash grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

Einuli smiled a little bit now.

“I’m sure you’ll be happy to know, you managed to destroy the pirate’s vessel.” Celestia said. “There were massive celebrations after Equestria heard about that… and after my rescue. Thanks to your brave plan.”

“None of us expected you’d sacrifice yourself to save all of us.” Dash said. “You had everypony worried…”

“Getting everyone else out safely was my priority… And… I wasn’t just going to let them threaten your planet after you escaped… I-I saw no other option… just take myself out with them.” Einuli sighed, letting his head fall back.

“It was a noble cause.” Celestia said.

“Yeah! I’m sure now all the ponies in Ponyville will be willing to let you and your friends come down and visit! I should go prepare you all a party! Of course… It’ll wait until your better.” Pinkie said.

“If any of yah need anythin, we’ll all be sure tah help.” Applejack nodded.

“It’d… be wonderful if all of you decided to stay for a bit longer…” Rarity added.

“Please?” Fluttershy asked.

“Hey, they won’t be going anywhere… after that scare, and Fluttershy busting the chaos inhibitor… well, at least Chotl said the ship’s going to be another few months of work.” Rainbow Dash said. “Plenty of time for them to enjoy being down in Equestria.”

“Not… like I really want to leave either… i-it’s nice here.” Einuli yawned softly. “And… they won’t be jumping anywhere while I’m out of commission…” He laughed. “But… it’s not my decision. Dandy’s the captain.”

“Then it’s settled. You’ll be staying down in Ponyville with us when you’re on the surface!” Dash grinned. She knew she didn’t need to lean in to whisper anything to him, so instead to cover herself. “I’m going to check on what’s taking Sparkle butt and Starlight so long.” She stood up and walked to the door, adding in a whisper only Einuli could hear (thanks to his ears), “And you still owe me a nice hard fucking.” She walked out, going to look for the other two mares.

Einuli smiled a little more at that, “Luna… thank you for carrying me out.” He spoke, causing the alicorn in question to actually look up, for the first time since the rescue operation ten hours ago, she smiled.

“I wasn’t going to leave you behind… I do remember an old addage the Guard uses. No Guard left behind.” Luna said. “And… for your bravery and courage… well… I wasn’t just going to abandon you. Not now, not ever.”

“Hoorah.” Einuli chuckled, the doctors finally coming in to check on him. From there the rest of the group was forced to disperse, and even Twilight and Starlight weren’t allowed to re-enter, the food and drink being taken from them so they could be safely given to Einuli without any risk of further harm.
> Chapter 32: End Log
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following day:

Einuli was finally able to walk again, and when he walked about his home, he was greeted to thunderous applause and cheering. It was quite a change from his usual solitude. He loved it! Pinkie had thrown a massive party for him, and now it had all died down after several hours.

Einuli had fallen back onto his bed. Now left alone -at least temporarily- to his thoughts. One thing plagued his mind constantly, and it was the loss of his hand and wing. No longer was he able to glide or fly, he was grounded permanently… at least that was until he began to consider the possibility of creating one… he’d need help with it though. Perhaps Nightbloom would be help him?

Those thoughts were pushed aside as Dash entered his room. “Why yah hiding in here?” She asked, plopping down beside the raptor.

“Just… wanted a bit of time to think.” Einuli smiled, nuzzling up against her.

“About what?” Dash asked, wrapping her arms and wings around him. “You know, you can tell me anything. And it won’t leave.”

“Just… what I can do about my missing wing and hand…” He sighed.

“Think it’s going to turn me away from you?” Dash joked. “Think again…” She kissed him.

Einuli smiled wider, “I’m glad… but, it’s just…”

“Don’t. You’ll have plenty of time to worry about it later.” Dash stated. “You’ve got plenty of friends who won’t think any differently of you because of your missing hand and wing. Least of all me… hell least of all any of us. You’re our friend Einuli, and… we know what you were willing to sacrifice for us. This… this is the best outcome of what happened.” She grabbed his remaining hand. “You’re smart. And you have another two smart ponies to help you figure out anything you need. Just… for now, don’t worry. Relax. You need it more than anypony. You nearly died back there… so just rest, relax, and have a bit of fun.” She grinned, nuzzling the top of his head.

“I’ll try to relax…” Einuli sighed, nuzzling his head between her breasts, causing her to laugh.

“Look at you… only a week or so with a dick and already turning into a perv around me… I’m a terrible influence on you.” Dash let her head fall back.

“And it seems like I’m a great influence on you.” Einuli said, looking at her.

“Makes me want to stay here with you.” She sighed. “You need me.”

“Dash…”

“Shh… you need some rest. And I’m here to give you a comfortable place to do just that.” Dash smiled up at him. “So sleep.” Einuli smiled, resting against her and closing his eyes. She gently stroked his feathers, lulling him off to sleep. Dash soon joined him, letting the soft mass of feathers keep her a bit warmer.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile:

Both Celestia and Luna had settled back down in Canterlot. Though, they weren’t treated to thunderous applause and cheers when they made it to the castle. It seemed that Blueblood and the nobles had started a massive (surprisingly nobility only…) petition to have the aliens banned from Equestria… despite them rescuing Celestia… and then nursing Luna back to health.

“There you are! We’ve been waiting for you!” Blueblood stated. “Those creatures…”

“Quiet.” Luna stated. “Just… just quiet.” Her magic forced his mouth close. “We don’t want to hear your hatred towards them. They’ve saved Equestria, and nearly died doing it. If any of you even think of trying anything…”

“We’ll tell the guard to stand down immediately.” Celestia added. “Leave them be. They’re friends of Equestria. If you desire to hate on them… well, I’m sure the citizens of Equestria will love to take a shot at all of you.” She strode up to them, “But, I’m sure Twilight and her friends will have absolute fun tearing you all apart if you even so much as hurt Einuli.”

“They’re barbarians! They enjoyed the killi-” One of the nobles was cut off.

“Not from what I heard. They don’t enjoy it. They have to do it. So they find something good to cling onto. Are you calling the Badlands guards monsters too? Or what about the Guards who fought off the Changelings during their invasion?” Luna questioned. The nobles and Blueblood backed down. “That’s what I thought. Now, any more complaints?”

“N-no Princesses…” They muttered.

“Good, after Pinkie’s party, we both need a bit of rest.” Celestia said. “So, we can trust that when we wake up Equestria won’t be burning, will it?”

They shook their heads.

“Good.” Luna yawned, walking out of the throne room.

Celestia too strode out, though after she was out of sight she cast an eavesdropping spell, just to listen in on what Blueblood and his cohorts were planning.

“It’s clear they’ve both been hypnotized… whatever that damnable thing… ‘Einuli’ did to Celestia was also done to Luna…” Blueblood said. “We need to find some way to alert Equestria to this, they’ve been compromised!”

Celestia chuckled to herself.

“And it’s clear they’re hypnotizing th-”

“Why… would they waste time hypnotizing the Princesses or the Elements? With the weapons they had… couldn’t they just take over Equestria?” One noblemen offered.

“Yeah… and from what we heard, didn’t that ‘Einuli’ have his hand and wing blown off? Why would they waste time helping us if they wanted to kill us?” Another added.

“Because they’re stup-”

“And… you know, they could teleport down to the planet with no magic… so yeah. They’re definitely smarter than you’re giving them… and… why return the Princesses instead of having them you know… say something in front of all of Equestria?” Another suggested.

“I think… you know, maybe they aren’t bad… just… you know aliens…” One ended.

“None of you are making sense!” Blueblood growled.

“Or… you’re just insane?” They all agreed. “You know what… fuck this, I have more important things to do then make up conspiracies… good night, and don’t come to me again with something so inane.”

“You just can’t leave!” Blueblood sounded exasperated.

Celestia laughed even more, now ending the spell and heading up to bed.

“Fine… if you won’t help me. I’ll find somepony who will… and I’m sure there are plenty of creatures who’d want their hands on some of that technology…” Blueblood mused. “The question is who…” He too finally left, leaving the throne room completely empty.